A Change of Plans
by RedYellow11
Summary: What if Rachel had a different idea to get back at Finn for sleeping with Santana? Spoilers up to the sectionals part of Special Education. Pezberry. Please R&R.
1. Revenge

A/N: Okay, so I'm addicted to Pezberry now (and a little in love with Naya/Santana), so I'm trying a multi-chaptered fic. I would really appreciate some feedback, because I'd like to know if you think it sucks or not, because I'm not completely sure I like how I started it. In any case, read and (hopefully) enjoy, and tell me if it's even worth continuing it.

Disclaimer: Don't own Glee. Please don't sue.

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My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm very serious, Santana. I've thought this through thoroughly, and I've decided that this is the only way that I can adequately make Finn feel exactly how I feel."

I was flabbergasted. There was no way this conversation was actually happening.

"You must be high or crazy if you think I'm going to agree to this," I said

"I really think this could be beneficial for both of us," she said. "Finn hasn't treated either of us particularly well, and-"

"I don't care what Finn's done to me, Manhands. I'm not going to sleep with you!"

Okay, I should probably rewind a little bit.

I'd told Rachel about Finn and I. It wasn't so much because I hated Rachel. In fact, contrary to popular belief, I didn't hate Rachel at all. It was just easy to pick on her because of her loud personality and atrocious sense of fashion. I actually hated Finn a lot more than I disliked Rachel. He'd been the worst lay I'd ever had, and then he had the nerve to tell me it didn't mean anything. Who says that to someone after they fuck them? Yeah, I'm easy and I'm cold, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings...even if that's what I let everyone believe. Still, Finnocence should have had the common sense to keep that thought to himself.

That actually was the reason I'd let it slip. Rachel seemed so happy with him, and he was happy to let her believe that he was still a virgin. I couldn't take the lying anymore. Sure, Rachel could be loud, but that didn't mean she was annoying, as much as I said it did. She deserved better than Finn Hudson. Pretty much anyone deserved better than Finn Hudson, who spent his entire day trying to get Berry to give it up to him.

She'd been pissed off about it. I hadn't been expecting her to be as mad at me as she was, but I guess I could've found a more tactful way of telling her...and I probably could've refrained from mentioning that we ate afterwards. Somehow, in my twisted brain, I hadn't thought that along with making Finn look worse, I was making myself look pretty fucking bad, too. Eh, whatever. I started to think that Rachel hating me wasn't such a bad consequence, as long as she got away from Hudson.

I wasn't really sure why I'd suddenly started caring about Berry...

Anyway, I figured I'd done my job. Berry and Finn were on the fast track to Splitsville, and I later on that week led us to sectionals victory. I was on a high.

I pulled into school that morning, glad that my life seemed to be going fairly well. That is, until I saw Brittany walk by, pushing Artie.

"Hey, San!" she said to me. "You were so great at sectionals! I didn't really have a chance to say that, yet."

"Yeah, you were really great," Artie said, less enthusiastically. See, Artie was convinced that I was trying to steal his woman. Sure, I missed sex with Brittany-hell, I just really liked sex with women-but that didn't mean that I wanted to take her from him. She was my best friend, and as long as he kept her happy, I wasn't going to get in the way of that. I really wasn't in love with Brittany that way (although, she was more than just a warm body. Stupid gay panic getting in the way of sexytimes), and I was just glad she could be with someone that she could actually be with in public.

"Yeah, I know I was," I said back to him. Just because I appreciated that he took care of Britt didn't mean I liked him or anything. And just because I suddenly had some weird, unexplainable soft spot for Berry, that didn't mean that I wasn't still a bad ass.

"I was super happy that I got to dance while you sang, S," she said, and I smiled. "Are we going to hang out this weekend? We haven't had a sleepover in, like, forever. I could even spend the night tonight!"

"Yeah, Britt. That sounds like a plan, but not tonight. Puck's coming over," I said. Her face fell a little bit. "Don't worry. You can come over super early tomorrow. I'll make pancakes." She got this huge grin on her face, and I couldn't help but laugh a bit. I may not have been in love with Brittany, but I sure as hell loved her.

"Cool! I'll see you then!" she said, hugging me. "I'll talk to you later. Artie wants to do a duet to make up for the one we didn't do on duets day." She waved, then ran off, pushing Artie in front of her. I just shook my head. She was like a whirlwind sometimes.

I walked to my locker, glad that Quinn hadn't approached me about Cheerios yet. Now that she was head Cheerio again, she felt like she had to push the rest of us harder to prove a point. She was an idiot. The only person that could really get away with acting like an uber bitch was me, and that only came with years of acquiring a reputation. Quinn didn't have it in her to get that kind of rep, especially when we'd all seen her warm and fuzzy side after she got preggers.

As glad as I was that Quinn wasn't talking to me, I'd rather have that than the person that was currently walking towards me. I couldn't believe that Rachel Berry was approaching me outside of glee club. I assumed that it had to do with either what was wrong with my solo, or how much of a slut I was. I knew that she seemed to be particularly upset that I was the one that Finn chose to lose his V-card to...I didn't quite get that, though.

"Hello, Santana," she said, flashing me a smile. Okay, I really didn't know what the hell was going on.

"What do you want, Ru Paul?" I snapped. I just wanted to get this stupid conversation over with.

She sighed. "Okay, I realize that the two of us don't have the best history with each other, but I would like to change that." She smiled again. Why did she keep smiling at me. "I wanted to start out by saying that I was really impressed by your solo. It was the perfect song choice, and I couldn't have sung it better myself. Well, I probably could have, but I have years of training, and-"

"Word of advice?" I said, cutting her off. She smiled (again) and nodded for me to go on. "You should take everything you say before you say it and cut off the last two sentences. You'd be a lot more tolerable that way."

She looked at me confused. "I sometimes take a while to get to my point, so I fear if I were to follow your advice, half of the things that come out of my mouth wouldn't make any sense."

"It'd still be an improvement," I said. I started walking away from my locker, and she followed.

"Actually, there was more to this than me just complimenting you, although the compliment was well deserved." I turned around to look at her, and she still had that smile plastered to her face.

"Why do I feel like your trying to butter me up? Shouldn't you be calling me a whore or something?" I really didn't like where this conversation was going. Rachel was very rarely nice to me...mostly because I was never nice to her, but whatever.

"While I'm not thrilled by the thought of you and Finn together...intimately...I can assure you that you are not the party in this that I am upset with. You're not the one that entered a relationship with me, then proceeded to lie to me for the entire duration of that relationship. In fact, you were the only one in the entire glee club that had the decency to tell me the truth, and I value that, even if you did do it in the least tactful way imaginable." She took a deep breath, and I cut her off before she could go on for another paragraph.

"Yeah, I know. You value the truth. It's why you told Finn about Quinn and Puck, right?" I asked, and she blushed...which was weird.

"I figured that everyone assumed that was a plot to steal Finn," she said.

"Yeah, well, everyone is stupid. It was pretty clear there was more to it than that." She smiled, and then I was really freaked out with myself. Why was I being nice to her? Sure, I didn't hate her, but that didn't mean I liked her, either. "Okay, seriously, can you get to your point now?"

Rachel straightened her shoulders and looked me in the eyes. I didn't like the look she was giving me...I could tell that whatever she was getting at wasn't going to be good.

"Okay, I'm going to make a suggestion, and I would like it if you would completely hear me out before you freak out or run away or punch me." She looked really nervous. It was sort of...cute...in a really lame, desperate way.

"Okay," I said, warily.

She took a few deep breaths, then started talking. "Finn slept with you, and then lied to me about it and it hurt me immensely. I didn't really care so much that he slept with you; boys don't seem to value their virginity like girls do. It hurt me more that he lied to me. If he'd just been honest from the start, I wouldn't have had the reaction that I had. That being said, I want him to feel at least a fraction of what I'm feeling right now."

"So you want revenge?" I said, and she nodded. "Wow, Berry. I didn't think you had it in you."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Santana." I smiled at that.

"So how do I fit into this?" I asked. "Seems like the only way to get back at Finn would be to sleep with someone else."

She took another deep breath. Okay, now I **really** didn't like where this was going.

"You're exactly right, Santana. The only way I can get back at Finn is to lose my virginity to someone else," she looked at me, waiting for me to react. I couldn't. She couldn't mean what I thought she meant. "That's where you come in."

My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm very serious, Santana. I've thought this through thoroughly, and I've decided that this is the only way that I can adequately make Finn feel exactly how I feel."

I was flabbergasted. There was no way this conversation was actually happening.

"You must be high or crazy if you think I'm going to agree to this," I said

"I really think this could be beneficial for both of us," she said. "Finn hasn't treated either of us particularly well, and-"

"I don't care what Finn's done to me, Manhands. I'm not going to sleep with you!"

Okay, I believe that brings us to where I started.

"I really think you're overreacting," she said. I wanted to scream at her or slap her or something, but we were already drawing attention, so I dragged her into the nearest empty bathroom.

"I am NOT overreacting, Berry! Why did you ever think I'd agree to this!"

Rachel shrugged. "I figured you were a reasonable person, and I thought that you may be willing to go along with this after you heard my argument."

I was shocked. I was so shocked I couldn't even think of a bitchy comment to make. Nothing was running through my head but a single thought.

_Rachel Berry wants us to fuck..._

After about a full minute of silence, Rachel started waving her hand in front of my face.

"Stop it!" I said.

"I'm sorry, you just looked catatonic." We were silent for a little bit longer. "Are you okay?"

"No," I said. "No, I'm not okay! My worst enemy...no, that's probably Quinn...or Artie...whatever. A person that I don't get along with at all just asked me to screw."

"No," she said. "I would say that a person that you've never really had a relationship with is asking you to have sex. I mean, our only communication has been when you've been ordered by Quinn or Sue Sylvester to make my life miserable."

"Listen up, Midget," I said. "Nobody orders me to do anything! I'm Santana Lopez! I run this place!"

"Then why is Quinn head Cheerio? Why did you answer to Sue for so long when you actually loved glee? Why did you even sleep with Finn in the first place?" she asked. "I heard it had to do with being head Cheerio back when Quinn was pregnant." I went to answer, but she kept going. "Furthermore, why are you so mean to me? I know you don't dislike me that much."

"What?" I snapped. "What makes you think that?"

"I have quite the sixth sense, Santana. I know that you've never really been into picking on me. I even know that the whole reason you told me about you and Finn was for my best interest, although, again, it would've worked better if you hadn't thrown it in my face the way you did."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to come up with something to say. I refused to be speechless. I wasn't going to let Rachel Berry render me speechless.

"Why me?" I asked, deciding it was better to change the subject than sit there saying nothing. "Why not Puck...or anyone else in the entire school?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Making Finn relive what he had to go through last year with Quinn would be going too far."

"Then don't get pregnant," I said.

"It's still too close to home," I said. "Even if I don't intend on getting back together with Finn, it would still be too painful for him."

"Wait, you and Finn broke up?" I asked.

"Well, not officially, but I assume that after this, it's not going to last for very long," she said. "Besides, I don't think I want to be with him anymore."

"Then why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why not just break up with him?"

"That wouldn't make him feel like how I feel, Santana. Sure, it would hurt, but he'd probably just get angry and hook up with someone else."

I couldn't believe this. "Okay, first crack houses, then dressing like a slut, now this? Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Manhands?"

"I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop with the nicknames. It would make this whole process a lot easier," she said. "It wasn't exactly easy to work up the nerve to approach you with this idea."

I sighed. I felt a little bad, which I really shouldn't. It was Rachel that had gone crazy, not me.

"I thought you were saving it for someone special or something," I said. "I'm pretty sure that throwing it away on revenge wasn't in your plan you've been making since you were four."

"Yeah, well, a lot of my plans have changed," she said. It wasn't so much what she said (obviously, plans changed, even for anal retentive divas) but how she said it that made me feel a little awkward. She sounded so hurt, and I didn't know how to deal with that. I was glad when she started talking again. "Look, the only way I can get Finn to know how I feel is to sleep with the same person he did. No, he won't feel the sting of a lie, but I figure since I'm actually cheating on him, it'll have a similar effect."

"I still don't really know why you thought I would do this," I said.

"Well, I figured that you probably missed sleeping with girls, considering that Artie and Brittany are exclusive right now. I could scratch that itch for you. It's a win-win."

I laughed. "A win-win, huh?"

"Yeah," she said.

"And what makes you think you're any good in bed, Mary?"

"I've done my research," she said, and I rolled my eyes. "It might be a little rough, but I'm pretty confident that I'd be able to help you achieve org-"

I covered her mouth with my hand. "Okay, don't finish that sentence, please." She glared at me, so I moved my hand off of her face.

"Well, it's true! Besides, you've seemed so wound up lately, I don't think it would take very much."

I narrowed my eyes. "You've been watching me?"

I could've sworn that I saw a slight panic cross Rachel's face, but it was gone in a millisecond, and I wasn't sure it'd been there at all. "You don't have to look very closely to see that you aren't yourself as of late."

I scoffed. "Whatever, Berry. I'm done listening now," I started to walk out of the bathroom, when she grabbed my attention again.

"You never say no!" she yelled after me. I had my hand on the door. I'd been _this close_ to getting out of this, but she'd had to go and say that.

"What?" I asked, turning around to face her again.

"When I was asking for your advice about Jesse, you told me that I should just never say no, because that's what you do. You never say no."

"Yeah, I caught that part." It was true. Well, not exactly true. There was more than one occasion that I'd turned down one of my father's buddies at a party, but they were old, and that was gross. As far as people that were my own age went, I did occasionally say no, but not often. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd turned someone down. I knew for a fact I'd never turned down a girl, but to be fair, the only girl that had ever offered was Brittany.

"So...what do you say? Tonight around seven?" she asked. She was so fucking hopeful. I didn't know why she wanted this so badly. Yeah, revenge or whatever, but I knew that she could think of another way to get back at Finn. Yet, here she was, asking me to take her virginity...it was weird. Still, I found myself pulling my phone out of my pocket.

"You're texting?" she asked. "If you don't want this, just tell me to my face, okay?"

"Berry, would you shut up? I'm texting Puck," I said, pressing send.

**Srry Puck. Gunna b u and ur hand 2nite.**

It only took about a second for a reply.

**U fucking suck.**

I laughed and turned back to Rachel.

"Your place, or mine?"


	2. Teaching

A/N: Okay, after all of the positive feedback (thank you for that, btw), I had no other choice than to continue this fic. I don't know how long it will be, but it'll keep going on after this, so just keep it up with the R&R, because it really inspires me to write. Thanks :)

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The rest of the school day had gone by much like any other, except Rachel kept looking at me, and it was sort of starting to weird me out. Rachel seemed completely shocked that I actually accepted her offer, but she'd been right; I was desperate for some lady lovin' since Brittany and I had called things off (or since Brittany had called things off...something about being faithful, blah blah blah). Still, she had a plan for the entire night. We'd decided that it would be better to do this at her house, because Rachel's dads would be out for the weekend, and my parents were nosy and, amazingly, still thought I was a virgin. Yeah, I've got some pretty attentive parents.

Anyway, since I'd agreed to this, Rachel seemed completely obsessed with me. I didn't know if I wanted to go through with this. I mean, sure, I had the v-cards of half of the guys at McKinley High, but guys didn't get all clingy like girls seemed to. Rachel seemed like the type to become completely attached to the person to pop her cherry, and I didn't like the thought of Berry floating around me all the time. Then again, it might be nice to have another girl to lay now that Brittany was out of the picture.

No, there couldn't be any repeat performances with Berry. This whole thing was too weird as it was.

I went home after school and got ready. Luckily for me, Cheerios practice had gotten canceled because the all-mighty Quinn was sick, and we couldn't possibly go on without our fearless leader, could we? Yeah, except we did for almost an entire year. Whatever, the point is that I had time to change and get out of my uniform. It didn't take much time for me to pick out an outfit. This may have been different than what I was used to, but I was still Santana Lopez, and I was still fucking hot. I showered, got dressed, then went on Facebook until it was time for me to head over to Rachel's. She'd given me the directions during school, considering that before that day, I wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near Rachel Berry's house.

I got to her door, and almost as soon as I'd knocked, Rachel flung the door open. I was shocked by what I saw; Rachel was only wearing a tiny, blue t-shirt and jean shorts that were barely there. Damn, those legs went on for forever. This actually hadn't been the first time I'd noticed Rachel's legs. She was always running around in those damn mini skirts, and when we'd done that funk number last year, I'd sort of jumped Brittany right afterward because those booty shorts Rachel had worn had driven me crazy.

Yeah, Berry had nice legs. No shame in admitting that.

"Um, Santana?" she said, knocking me out of my stupor. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I said, stepping inside. "Let's just get this over with, Stubbles."

Rachel sighed. "Um...can I ask of you a favor?"

I rolled my eyes. "I think this is the only favor you'll be getting out of me for the rest of our lives."

"I know, and it's actually related to what's going to happen tonight," she said. "I just...I just ask you to remember that this is my first time, and it's very important to me, and although this isn't how I imagined it, I'd still like it to be special, so-"

"Is there a point here?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "I'd like it very much if you'd be nice to me. When this is over, you can go back to torturing me and ordering Karofsky to slushie me, but I'd really appreciate it if you were gentle with me tonight."

"I don't do gentle," I said.

"Well, could you at least call me Rachel?" she asked.

"No. Not happening."

"Fine, whatever. We don't need to do this. I don't know why I even thought this was a good idea anyway." She sat down on her couch. I hated this. She was actually making me feel bad. I hadn't really had that whole thing about my first time being special, so I didn't get girls that were like that. Still, for some reason, I didn't want her to be mad at me, and at this point, I was turned on beyond belief, so I sat down next to her.

"I won't do any of the nicknames, but I'm calling you Berry. I'll do my best not to hurt you, but I'm not making any promises, because the first time usually hurts a little. I'll do my best to make this special or whatever, okay?"

Rachel looked over at me. "Why are you doing this? It's obviously difficult for you to even be in the same room with me." I didn't like this. Rachel was making me feel guilty, and I never felt guilty.

"You said yourself that I don't hate you. I'm just a bitch to everyone, okay? It's just who I am."

"Why? Isn't it hard not having any friends?" she asked.

"I could ask you the same question, Tr-" The nickname was on the tip of my tongue, begging to leave my mouth, but I swallowed it. "Whatever, we're not supposed to be sharing our feelings. We're supposed to be fucking, so tell me if we're doing this or not."

"I-" Rachel started, but stopped herself. She just nodded. "Yeah, we're doing this." We sat there, looking at everything but each other for a few minutes. God, this was awkward.

"So...how do you wanna do this?" I asked. "Are we going up to your room?"

"Oh," she said. "Yeah. Follow me."

We walked into her room, and I was shocked by all the pink. Yeah, I saw it coming from a mile away, but it was still a shock to the system to actually see all of the pink on the walls. I felt like I was in the Barbie dream house.

"Um...why don't we sit on the bed?" she suggested. I nodded and sat. Her bed was actually surprisingly comfortable.

"Okay, so where do you wanna start?" I asked as she sat next to me.

"Well, I figured, we'd start by kissing and sort of go from there." I waited for her to lean in and start this, then I remembered she was the shy virgin, so I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss. She didn't do anything at first, but she caught on quick and started kissing me back. I was actually impressed; despite the fact that she seemed to only lip lock with guys that were terrible kissers, Berry was actually a great kisser. In fact, she was one of the best kisses I'd ever had, sappy as that sounded. She pushed me back on the bed, and I laughed.

"What? What did I do?" she asked.

"Nothing, it's just funny that you think you're gonna top me," I said, flipping us over and pinning her hands over her head. I saw a slight panic cross her features. "Don't worry, Berry. I'm not gonna hurt you." I leaned forward and started kissing her neck, and she moaned. I couldn't help but think that it was incredibly sexy.

Okay, Berry had nice legs and an incredible voice, but everyone knew she had the best voice in Lima. No surprise there.

"San," she panted out after a minute. "Are you...leaving marks?" I looked up at her, taking a page out of Quinn's book and quirking my eyebrow at her. "It's just, I don't know how I'll explain that to my fathers if they were ever to see them."

"Wear turtlenecks. They fit right in with your terrible fashion taste." I felt Rachel tense underneath me, and I realized what I'd done. "I'm sorry. That was the last insult, 'kay?" Had I just apologized? What the fuck was wrong with me? "And yes, I'm leaving marks, because I want Hudson to see the proof of how much better I am in bed than he is." I pulled her earlobe into my mouth, and the moaning resumed. I pulled away from her for a second, and she whimpered in frustration, but she didn't seem so upset when she realized I was pulling off my top and bra.

"Wow," she said. "Your doctor did a really good job. You can't even see the scars. I'm feeling rather self conscious right now."

I rolled my eyes. "Take your top off, Berry. I'm sure you look fine under there."

"Boy, Santana, you sure do know what to say to make a girl feel special." She sat up as best as she could and peeled her top off over her head. She wasn't wearing a bra, so her top half was completely exposed to me. I stared at her chest; sure, they weren't very big, but something about them was...I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I just palmed both of them and squeezed, getting Rachel to gasp.

Alright, she had the legs and the voice and she had a nice rack. I liked being able to fit her entire boob in my hand. It was a control thing. It made sense.

I squeezed a few more times before putting my hands to either side of her body, and lowering my head. I sucked her nipple into my mouth, and she instantly bucked her hips up, trying to get some friction for release.

"Eager, are we?" I said. "Trust me, it'll be better if I stretch it out a little bit."

"Y-Yeah. That makes sense." She put her hands on the back of my neck and pushed my mouth back onto her left nipple. I laughed a little bit as I sucked, and her hips bucked again. I hummed against it, hoping that would push her just a bit further, and when she started moaning out my name, I knew it had. I switched nipples, giving it the same attention I'd given the first one. When I thought Rachel couldn't take it any more, I showed her a little mercy and put my thigh between her legs. She immediately started grinding against it.

"God, San," she said.

"You know, I could get used to this," I said. "Having Rachel Berry at my mercy, humping my leg because I've got her so wound up. You're just a little slut, aren't you?"

Rachel stilled underneath me. "I thought you said no more insults."

I rolled my eyes again. God, she was such a virgin. "It's called dirty talk, Berry."

"Oh..." she said. "Well, now that I know its intention, it was pretty sexy, especially the way you husked it out-" I pushed my thigh into her, and she stopped talking.

"Okay, I won't insult you if you agree to stop with the paragraphs, got it?" she nodded. "Good. Now get back to humping me like the slut you are." Rachel bit her bottom lip and started pushing herself into me again. Before too long, I saw the tell-tale signs of an approaching orgasm, so I moved my leg so I was straddling her again.

"What the fuck?" Rachel exclaimed. Damn, hearing her swear was hot.

Legs, voice, chest, and the way she swears. Whatever, it was just because she barely swore. It was nice to see her cut loose a little.

"I'm not letting you come before I even get in your pants. That's just lame. That was just to make sure you were wet enough." Before I could stop her, she grabbed my hand and shoved it into her shorts. My fucking God, she was dripping.

"Is that wet enough for you?" she said. No, I'd say it was more of a moan.

"We can't rush this. I've got more planned for you," I said.

"Santana Lopez, if you don't start touching me _right now, _I will throw you off this bed and touch myself!" She started pulling off her shorts until she was completely naked under me. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help the moan that escaped. Truth be told, I sort of liked being told what to do in the bedroom, but no one ever tried...not even the boys...not even Puck. I was eating this up.

So, legs, voice, chest, the swears, and now her aggressiveness. That made sense because...fuck it, Berry was just hot all around.

I couldn't deny the naked girl underneath me, so I started circling her clit before lightly pinching it. A few more swears escaped her lips, and I felt my underwear being ruined. I lowered my head in between her legs and took in the sight before me. Rachel's pussy was dripping, just waiting to be licked. I took one swipe, licking up some of her juices.

"Damn...you taste so good," I said right before I latched onto her clit and started sucking.

"Holy fucking fuck!" she screamed, and I found myself silently thanking whatever god that her room was soundproofed. I was pretty sure that people in Alaska would've been able to hear her otherwise. All the sounds she was making above me were turning me on so much. God, I hadn't fully realized how much I missed this. Sex with guys was more something I did to keep up appearances, but guys sort of grossed me out. Their come tasted gross, and they were sweating and hairy and grunted. Girls, on the other hand, were soft and they made the sexiest noises, and they were delicious.

Yeah, that was probably a pretty gay point-of-view...

I decided it was finally time to do this. I thought about asking Rachel if she was ready, but I didn't want to kill the mood, so I just started tracing circles around her entrance. When she moaned louder, I took that as the green light, and I pushed two fingers inside of her. She went still, but I kept sucking on her clit, and I kept my fingers still until I felt her relax. When she did, I pulled out slowly and pushed back in. I went on like this for a few minutes until Rachel moaned out a single word.

"Faster."

I was more than happy to oblige. She needed to come, and I needed her to come, because if she didn't soon, I was afraid I might just from going down on her. It had happened more than once with Brittany. I picked up my pace and hoped that if I was hurting her, she'd stop me, because I wasn't in the frame of mind to stop myself. Soon enough, I felt her muscles start to flutter around my fingers. With one final cry, her back arched off of the bed and she got so tight I could barely move my fingers inside of her. Finally, after what seemed like forever, her body went limp. I pulled out of her, licked her clean, and moved next to her.

"Wow," she whispered out, and I laughed.

"Yeah. That was actually pretty hot." I took a deep breath, trying to give her time to recover before I threw myself on top of her. "How do you feel?" I immediately regretted asking that, remembering Finn's answer to that question.

_I don't feel anything...because it didn't mean anything._

Yeah, I'm cold, but I'd never say something like that to someone after I slept with them. That's just fucked up.

"I feel..." Rachel started, but drifted off.

"You don't have to answer," I said.

"No, it's just sort of hard to put a thought together right now, y'know?" I smiled at her, and she smiled back. Ugh, this was too sappy. "I feel sort of like I'm floating. It was...amazing. I feel amazing. You're amazing." Seriously, I felt like I was in a sap fest. I wanted to hurl or something, but instead, for some unknown reason, I felt my smile getting bigger.

"Cool," I said, and then I remembered who I was. "Don't think you're getting away with not getting me off, though. I don't play that."

Rachel shook her head. "I won't do that to you. Just give me a minute, yeah?"

"Okay, but hurry up. I'm about to pop over here."

It actually didn't take very long for Rachel to catch her breath. I figured it was all those vocal lessons and breathing exercises finally paying off. She was on top of me, kissing me before I even knew what was happening. One of her hands started trailing down my stomach. She pulled back and looked at me.

"Under different circumstances, I'd draw this out a little more, like you did with me, but I can tell that you need to get off, and I don't really know what I'm doing, so I figured we should get straight to business," she said.

I nodded. "Yeah, I like the way you think. Just, do what I did, okay?"

"Okay," she said. She ran her hand up my thigh and started to part my lips. She gasped. "You're so wet. Did I make you this wet?" I just nodded. She shook her head and lowered her lips to my ear. "You're so easy, San." My eyes went wide as she pulled back and looked me in the eye. "Was that good dirty talk?"

I laughed and moaned at the same time at her innocence. "Yeah, that was good. Focus on touching me right now, though. We can do dirty talk next time."

She looked at me funny and her hand stilled. "Next time?"

"This is not the time for talking. This is the time for fucking, so get to it!" She laughed and started rubbing my clit. It felt so good, but it wasn't enough, so I started pushing her head down.

"Wait," she said, resiting me, and I groaned. "I don't know if I can do that. I don't have any idea what to do with my mouth."

"You learn fast," I said, continuing to try to push her down.

"But what if I can't figure it out?" she asked.

"Okay, I'm giving you five second to put your head between my thighs before I pick you up and throw you out the window, got it?" Her head immediately went down to where I wanted it, but her mouth still wasn't on me. "I'll walk you through it, okay?"

She didn't respond, but I felt her tongue touch my clit, and I about lost it. If she'd done more than barely stick her tongue out and hold it on my clit, I would have.

"Okay," I said. "That's good, just start flicking your-" Before I got it out, she caught on and started quickly licking at me. I started shaking. God, this had never felt this good before. She pulled away and I almost strangled her.

"Is that okay?" she asked from between my legs.

"Yes! Look, until I come, don't stop, okay? I'll tell you if you do something wrong." She just nodded and went back to my clit. After a few minutes, I felt her nip at it, and I screamed out in pleasure and pain. "Rachel!"

Her head popped up again, a smug smirk on her face. "I thought I'd try something new. Good?"

"Yeah, very good."

She started to go back to work, but before she did, she said, "You called me Rachel." I was about to tell her off, but she went back to my clit again, and all I could think about was how badly I needed to finish.

"Rachel, I want you to put two fingers inside of me," I said, and she quickly did as I told her. She picked up the pace fast, and I couldn't help but cry out her name again. Who knew that Rachel would be so good at sex? I was close, so close. I just needed that last push, that last little thing to send me over. When I felt Rachel's fingers curl inside of me, I started shaking even harder than I already was. She was hitting that spot that it seemed no one could quite get, and I felt like I was falling off of a cliff. I'd never felt like this...ever. Even Brittany, who was far and away the best lay I'd had before this hadn't been able to make me quiver like Rachel was right then. I didn't want it to end.

Of course, it did, and for a minute, I was afraid that I was going to black out. When Rachel came up next to me and held me, it helped me catch my breath.

"Was that good?" she asked. "I mean, I know it was probably rough, but I figure, with practice, I'll get better."

I just grabbed her face and kissed her. I could taste myself, and I moaned. How was a girl that I had tortured for so long for being manly the best sex I'd ever had?

"You were good, but I figure, if you want more of these 'practice sessions', I wouldn't be opposed to teaching you what I know." She smiled, then looked down at the blankets.

"Well, I know you don't do the emotional stuff, so I'll let you go," she said.

"Are you kidding? You think we're done?"

She looked at me, confused. "You wanna keep going?"

I got on top of her. "Girl, by the time I'm done with you, you won't be able to walk."

I spent the rest of the night...teaching.


	3. Oh, Finn

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my phone ringing.

"Who the fuck would call me this early?" I mumbled, grabbing my phone and answering it. "Hello?"

"San?" the voice on the other side said. "San? I'm at your house. Where are you?"

I was confused. I shook my head, trying to get my brain to work.

_Okay, the person on the phone is Brittany. Why is she calling? Right, we were spending the weekend together...but she said I wasn't home. Where am I, again?_

See, I'm not much of a morning person, especially when I haven't gotten enough sleep, so it wasn't surprising to me that I didn't remember what I'd done the night before. I rolled over in the bed, and that's when everything started to make sense. Rachel was laying next to me, slowly starting to wake up. I'd had sex with Rachel Berry, social outcast who dressed like a blind toddler. I should've been a little freaked out about that, but I couldn't help but smile a little bit.

Rachel was a champ in the sack.

I'd thought that our first time was good, but it only got better from there. Rachel was very fast to pick up on what I liked and what I didn't. Plus, she had stamina and a very low recovery time. I had trouble keeping up. I hadn't expected Rachel to catch on like she did, considering it was her first time. I figured it was because she was so tightly wound up in her normal life; she just had to let go sometimes, right? Sex must be that time for her.

"Santana?" I heard Brittany say again. "Are you there?"

I sat up in the bed. "Yeah, Britt, I'm here. Sorry, I just got caught up at Puck's house."

"I thought you said Puck was going to be at your house last night?" Brittany wasn't the brightest conventionally, but she had a crazy memory. Seriously, I was pretty sure her brain had diverted some of its functions just so her memory could be insanely accurate. It was almost photographic, or whatever.

"I...um...plans changed. Look, I'm sorry. I'll be over there in a second."

"Who's on the phone?" a very sleepy Rachel asked from behind me.

"San...was that a girl?" Brittany asked, and I internally groaned.

"Um...yeah. It was the TV. I gotta go. See ya in a minute, okay? 'Bye!" I snapped my phone shut, hopped out of the bed, and started getting dressed.

"Is everything okay?" Rachel asked me, still wearing the 'I just got fucked' look. I was tempted to just blow Brittany off and continue business with Rachel.

"Yeah, that was just Brittany. I forgot I'm spending the weekend with her." I looked at myself in the mirror, laughing at all the marks on my neck. "Damn, girl, you're a biter."

"You didn't seem to mind last night," she said. "Did I hurt you, though?"

"No, I'm fine." Yeah, she had hurt me, but it was sort of awesome. "Okay, I'm heading out."

"Okay," she said, slight disappointment in her voice. I looked at her.

"You knew I wasn't going to stick around, Berry. You're lucky I wasn't gone before you woke up."

"Yeah, I know, but when I pictured my first time, I didn't imagine the person I was with to run off the next morning," she said, playing with the hem of her comforter.

"Look, we had fun. It doesn't need to go past that," I said. "And no one outside of Hudson needs to know, right?"

The look on her face sort of reminded me of a kicked puppy. "Yeah, San. He won't tell anyone. He'll be too embarrassed to tell anyone. I won't say anything, either."

"Good," I said, suddenly feeling bad. "I don't want this bringing down my rep. I'm still trying to recover from stupid Quinn taking my spot as captain." I grabbed the rest of my stuff. "See ya," I said, walking out to my car. I didn't get it; I'd done this a bunch of times. With guys, it was usually easy to make a quick getaway. In fact, most of them thought I was the perfect girl because I didn't wanna stick around. With Brittany, it was a little harder, because she was my best friend, and I could tell that she felt more for me than I felt for her at the time. Thankfully, she'd moved on quick, and we'd been able to drop back into friendship, just minus the sex.

Berry, though...Berry was making me feel bad for leaving, and we'd never even been friends. I didn't like that. I didn't even understand that.

When I pulled up to my house, Brittany was waiting for me on my doorstep.

"Hey, Britt," I said, unlocking the door for her.

"Hey, San," she replied, going inside of my house. "Where were you last night?"

I looked at her confused. "I was at Puck's house, remember?"

She shook her head. "No, you couldn't have been at Puck's house, because you said Puck is terrible in bed, and you had good sex last night. I can see it on your face and the way you're sort of limping." I smiled as I sat down on my couch, thinking about how rough Rachel had gotten with me when I'd told her not to hold back...that was about three hours into the night. Brittany sat down next to me. "So, who were you really with? Was it a girl, because I could've sworn I heard a girl's voice."

"No, Britt. It wasn't a girl," I said.

"You don't have to lie to me. I know you like girl sex better than boy sex."

"Please stop talking," I said. Yeah, it was true, but I didn't need her to constantly remind me that I was probably gay.

"Was it Quinn? She always seemed sort of gay to me."

My eyes went wide. "No! It wasn't Quinn! Ew! I have better taste than that!" I didn't miss that I'd just said that sleeping with Rachel was better than sleeping with Quinn. I mean, at least Rachel hadn't stabbed me in the back. "Besides, you're the only Cheerio I'd ever sleep with. The rest of them are too afraid to even talk to me."

"So it wasn't a Cheerio, but I know I've heard that voice somewhere." I mentally slapped myself. I shouldn't have said that. I just prayed that she wouldn't put the pieces together.

"Brittany, I was with Puck last night. There aren't even any other girls at the school that sleep with girls besides the two of us."

"Is it somebody in glee club with us?" she asked, completely ignoring me. Sometimes, I wished Brittany was as dumb as she came off to other people.

"Brittany..." I said, warningly, but she knew I wouldn't do anything to her, so she kept going.

"Oh, it is!" she exclaimed. "Well, it wasn't Quinn, because you said so, and it wasn't me, because I would've remembered." She lightly tapped her temple as she thought. "It couldn't have been Tina. I saw her and Mike when me and Artie went to the movies. Lauren is out of town with her parents...so that leaves Mercedes and Rachel. Since the whole thing with Puck last year, you can't stand Mercedes...San, did you sleep with Rachel?"

"What?" I scoffed. "Everyone knows I torture Rachel every chance I get."

"But you think she's hot," she said. "Your eyes are glued to her legs, like, more than half the time." I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Brittany smiled at me. "It's okay, Santana."

I wanted to argue, but Brittany always knew when I was lying. Stupid best friend who knows everything about me..."Britt, you have to promise me that you aren't going to tell anyone, okay?"

She looked at me, confused. "Why?"

"Why?" I asked, not believing my ears. "I think it's pretty obvious why!"

"Wait, is it because it's Rachel, or because being gay scares you?"

"The first one, Brittany! How many times do I have to tell you I'm not gay?"

She rolled her eyes. "There's nothing wrong with being gay. Kurt's super nice, and he's the gayest person I know...well, besides you."

I rolled my eyes, reminding myself that Brittany was my best friend, and therefore, I couldn't hit her. "Kurt had to transfer schools," I reminded her.

"So you won't come out because you think people will threaten you and stuff?"

"It's not just that, it's more...I'm not gay!" I yelled, immediately regretting my slip-up.

"Okay, Santana. I'll let you be in the closet for now, but I think you should come out so other gay kids won't feel lonely like Kurt did," she said. I wanted to deny some more, but she started talking again. "Do you have any food? I'm really hungry."

I sighed and got up to make us some breakfast, hoping that I could avoid this topic for the rest of the weekend.

* * *

Fortunately, I was able to avoid the subject of Rachel and me for the rest of the weekend. I'd actually almost convinced myself that it hadn't happened a few times...that it was some weird, twisted wet dream that I'd had Friday night, but then I looked at the marks covering my body, and I knew that Rachel Berry had, indeed, rocked my world.

When I showed up to school on Monday (a little late deciding if I wanted to wear my thermals under my Cheerios uniform even though it was uncharacteristically warm that day. I decided to wear them anyway), a very pissed off Finn Hudson was waiting for me by my locker. Rachel was talking to him, obviously trying to calm him down. From what I could tell, it wasn't working. I guess Rachel had already spilled the beans.

"Hello, Finn," I said as I got to my locker. I turned to face Rachel. "Hey, Rach," I said. Hey, what can I say? I liked to piss people off, and I knew that would get under Finn's skin. I hadn't expected the small blush that crept up on Rachel's cheeks, but it seemed to infuriate Finn even more, so I was all for it.

"What the hell, Santana!" Finn said sharply, but quietly, because he didn't want to attract any attention.

"What?" I said, not taking my eyes off of Rachel. Man, I was eating this up; both the fact that Finn was so angry and that my gaze was leaving Rachel looking rather flustered. I liked these small reminders of just how good I was in bed.

Finn waved his hand in front of my face until I looked up at him. "Please, just tell me that Rachel's just trying to make me jealous or something. Please tell me that you didn't...that you two didn't..."

"Fuck until the sun came up?" Rachel and Finn both blushed at that. "Sorry to break it to you Finnessa, but she's telling the truth."

Finn's mouth dropped open, and he looked at Rachel. "How could you do this to me?" Rachel looked down on the ground, obviously affected by the hurt in his voice.

"Hey," I said, getting Finn's attention again. "She didn't do anything that you hadn't already done. She just did it better."

"She cheated on me! We were broken up when I slept with you!"

"Yeah, but you lied about it. At least she was honest with you." I flipped my ponytail. "Besides, do you really think the two of you would've lasted much longer? Your whole relationship has been a train wreck filled with lies and cheating. It was bound to end anyway."

"Finn," Rachel finally said. "I'm sorry, but you hurt me so much. I just wanted you to know how it felt."

"So what, you thought it would be okay to cheat on me?" he said.

"No, I just-"

"Was it worth it, Rachel? Did I really hurt you so bad that you had to throw away your virginity on someone who doesn't even care about you? I would've made it special." I could tell Rachel wanted to say something, but I didn't know what it was. Whatever it was, she didn't want me to hear it, because she kept glancing over at me. "We love each other, and you gave it up to someone that's made your life a living hell." Rachel looked like she was about to cry. Seriously, I wished she'd just say what she wanted to say, because the look on her face was sort of making me want to tear Hudson's balls off. Then again, it didn't take much to make me want to do that.

"Look, Finn. We slept together. Get over it," I said, and he looked back at me.

"Congratulations, Santana. You've ruined yet another person's life. Rachel and I were happy before you opened your stupid mouth."

"Don't talk to her like that," Rachel said, and I looked at her, surprised. Finn looked shocked, too.

"Did you seriously just stand up for her? She ruined our relationship!"

"No, **you **ruined this relationship when you lied to me!" Rachel was fuming, and I couldn't lie; it was turning me on so much seeing her like this. "You could have told me the truth when I told you about Jesse! I told you that honesty was important to me, and you still didn't tell me the truth!"

"I didn't think you'd ever find out!" he yelled, and I knew it was a mistake, because Rachel got eerily quiet before speaking again.

"Okay, I'm clearly very upset, so maybe telling me that you planned on lying to me for the entirety of our relationship is probably the exact wrong thing to say," she said. "I'm seriously trying so hard not to hit you right now." I laughed, and that got the attention back on me.

"There wasn't even anything in it for you this time," Finn said to me. "Do you just want to destroy my life?"

I laughed. "Oh, please. Do you really think I care about you enough to destroy your life? Get over yourself."

"Well, then why?" he asked. "Are you really that easy?" What happened next shocked all three of us.

Rachel grabbed him, turned him towards her, and slapped him.

Of course, now we had everyone's attention, but they all assumed that it had to do with me sleeping with Finn. Finn looked at Rachel, and Rachel looked back at him, anger burning in her eyes. I was really considering jumping her right then and there, Finn and all the others be damned. Finn went to say something, but Rachel raised her hand again, and Finn walked off, tail between his legs.

"Um," I said, low enough that no one could hear. "What the hell was that?"

"I'm not sure, but I think this whole thing got my point across," she said.

"Are you alright?" I asked her before my mind could stop my mouth. I didn't care if she was alright...except I did a little bit. "I mean, you didn't have to slap him, or whatever."

"Yes I did," she said. "He should be taking his anger out on me, not you. Besides, I think we have an alliance of sorts now."

"An alliance?" I asked.

"Well, considering that you did me a favor with Finn, and you stood up for me just now, and Friday night was amazing, I figured we could do the whole friends-with-benefits thing...except without the friends part, since you probably won't want to see me outside of our little liaisons."

I sighed. "Okay. Whatever." I looked around, and the crowd had basically dissolved, so I leaned into Rachel and whispered in her ear, "You know, you getting all angry and slap-happy with Finn was really hot."

She laughed. "Are you just horny all the time?"

"Uh, duh. Aren't you?"

"Well, I wouldn't say all the time, but having you this close to me isn't exactly cooling me off."

"All I'm saying is seeing you all controlling like that got me keyed up a little." A lot, actually, but that wasn't important.

"Santana Lopez, are you secretly a bottom?"

I rolled my eyes. "Are you kidding? No one is allowed to top me, Berry."

She threw her hands up in the air. "Just a question. No need to go crazy."

I laughed. "Alright, so how about we skip next class and have some fun in the janitor's closet."

She backed away from me a little bit. "As much fun as that sounds, I can't miss class. I have perfect attendance, and I can't jeopardize that. Besides, we might get caught."

"So? That's half the fun," I said, stepping closer to her again. "Besides, it won't kill you to miss one class." I licked the shell of her ear, and felt extremely satisfied when I felt her shiver.

"San...I-I can't. I have Julliard to think about. I can't have any blemishes on my record."

"Rachel, you can miss one class! Seriously, if you leave me like this, I'm never touching you again."

Rachel looked like she was thinking. "Okay, school starts in a minute. Wait in the janitor's closet on the second floor. I'll meet you there." I smiled and started to walk away, but she stopped me. "By the way, I know that was an empty threat." I laughed. "And you called me Rachel again."

"Leave before you're late or I kill you," I said, slapping her ass, and thanking God there wasn't anyone in the hallway to witness this little exchange. I went to the janitor's closet and waited...and waited...and waited. About twenty minutes had passed since the bell for classes had sounded, and I was starting to cool off. Finally, Rachel walked in.

"What the fuck took you so long?" I almost screamed at her, dragging her into the closet by the front of her sweater.

"I had to stay until she took attendance," she said. "Then I waited a few minutes before saying I had a headache and had to go to the nurse's office." I attached my lips to her neck. "I...uh...I didn't wanna seem obvious."

I pulled away. "Yeah, well, now we have less time before class starts," I said. "I was really looking forward to teasing you for a while."

"Yeah, well, who said anything about you touching me?" She dropped down to her knees, and pulled my skirt down as she went.

Okay, no one was allowed to top me...except Rachel.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so do you guys want the sexytimes in the janitor's closet, or should I move on? I honestly don't care either way, I just want to know. Hope you liked the chapter.


	4. It's Just a Name

A/N: Okay, I pulled a muscle in my back, and I'm on some VERY powerful pain killers, so if this chapter isn't up to par, I'm sorry. Btw, I tried to find a happy medium between those who wanted sexytimes and those who wanted plot. Alright, here's chapter 4. Enjoy, and please, R&R.

* * *

"Holy fuck, Berry," I gasped when I felt her breath against my clit. I heard her sigh, and she stood back up. "What? What's going on?"

"I'm not going down on you if you can't call me by my name," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Oh, for Christ's sake...you need to stop dwelling on this," I said. I really just wanted her back on her knees. "It's just a fucking name."

"How would you feel if I called you Lopez all the time?"

I rolled my eyes. "I really wouldn't care."

She shook her head. "You just don't get it," she said, looking me up and down. "Fine, I'll just leave, then."

"Wait, wait...what?"

"Sorry, but all I'm asking of you is for you to call me by my given name. If you can't do that, then this can't continue."

My mouth dropped open. "There is no way you're leaving me like this. I'll make your life a living hell if you do."

Rachel smirked."Y'know what? Fine." She stepped closer to me, and immediately slipped two fingers inside of me. I let out an embarrassingly loud moan, and thanked God that no one was out in the halls. "Is this what you want?" Rachel husked into my ear.

"Yes," I breathed out. I felt her thumb start rubbing my clit, and she put in a third finger. "Oh God, yes!"

"Are you close?" she asked, and all I could do was nod. Of course I was close; Rachel knew exactly where and how to touch me. I started to shake, and I knew I was about to come, but right before I did, Rachel pulled out of me.

"Wha-wha...huh?" I almost felt like crying. I was _right there..._

"Okay, I get that we're not friends, and I get that you don't like giving up power in relationships of any nature, but I'm not going to let this go. Call me Rachel, or we can't do this anymore." She put her fingers in front of her face, and sucked them into her mouth. I whimpered...I actually fucking whimpered. "I'm going back to class now," she said, walking out of the janitor's closet.

I wanted to kill something...anything. After Rachel left the closet, I tried to get myself off, but I was so frustrated by what had just happened that I couldn't finish, which just pissed me off even more. Who the hell did she think she was? I was Santana fucking Lopez! People lined up around the block to sleep with me! They didn't leave me high and (not so) dry in the fucking janitor's closet!

The bell rang and people started coming out of there classes, so I stepped out of the closet, only to be greeted by the one person in the world I didn't wanna talk to right then.

"Sup," Puck said. "Did you just come out of the closet?" He laughed at his own joke. I just rolled my eyes.

"Was there something you wanted?" I asked.

"Hey, no need to be moody. You're the one who stood me up on Friday night, remember?" He stepped closer to me. "I was just wondering if you wanted to hook up at lunch today."

"Why would I wanna do that?" I really didn't have the patience for him.

"Um, because I'm me, and you're you, and we hook up. That's what we do. Besides, you look like you could use a fuck right now."

"Not from you," I said, walking past him. Unfortunately, he couldn't take a hint, and he followed me.

"Why not from me?" he asked. "I'm a stud. Everyone wants a piece of the Puckasaurus." I turned around and pinned Puck to the nearest set of lockers, and everyone around us started to watch the fight. "What the fuck?"

"Okay, I'm going to say this once, today, okay?" He quickly nodded. "I'm not going to fuck you. I don't care how much you beg, or how much bad boy swag you try to turn on, it's not going to happen, so I suggest you back the fuck off!"

"Okay! Okay! Just let me go!" For being the 'Puckasaurus' and such a bad ass, Puck could be such a pussy sometimes. I let him go, and he just walked off. Everyone was staring at me, wondering what the hell had just happened. "What're you all looking at? Move along!" Everyone scattered, trying to get as far away from me as possible.

I couldn't believe I was this worked up because of Rachel Berry. I spent the rest of the day terrorizing any and everyone that crossed my path. Even Quinn was smart enough to avoid me when I got like this. Unfortunately, the only person that was never afraid of me was Brittany, and she walked up to me right before glee club at the end of the day...with Artie.

"Hey, San," she said. Artie just waved.

"Hey, Britt...Wheels."

"Santana, I'd really appreciate it if you called me Artie. It is my name."

I snapped. "Why the fuck is everyone suddenly so obsessed with their fucking names!" I leaned over Artie, satisfied with the fear in his eyes. "Do you suddenly wanna lose the feeling in your arms, too?"

"Artie, I think you should let me talk to Santana alone for a minute, okay?" Brittany said.

"Okay. Just call me if you need anything," he said, rolling off.

"What's he gonna do if you call, roll over my foot?" I mumbled under my breath.

"Santana...stop," Brittany said, rather firmly.

"What?"

"Stop this. You're scaring everyone. Half of the Cheerios are threatening to quit because they're so afraid of you." I tried to say something, but she held up her hand. "I don't know what's going on, but fix it. It makes me sad when you're mean like this."

"But, Brittany-"

"No buts. Just fix it."

"What makes you think there's anything to fix?" I asked.

"Because you only get like this when you're horny, and if you're horny, Rachel isn't having sex with you for some reason, which means you did something."

"Maybe I just don't wanna sleep with her." Brittany shook her head at me. "Fine! Maybe Manhands just doesn't wanna keep sleeping with me."

"Yeah, obviously, but you must've done something, because when Rachel walked in this morning, she was super happy, and I'm pretty sure it was about you. She was, like, swooning and stuff."

"Really?" I said, and she nodded. That wasn't good...with swooning came feelings, and this whole thing wasn't about feelings. It was about sex. I big part of me wanted to let this whole thing drop; I didn't want this if Rachel was going to think we were girlfriends or something. An even bigger part of me just needed an orgasm...like, immediately. I sighed, knowing which part of me was going to win.

Glee that day was an absolute disaster. Quinn and Sam were fighting about something stupid that I didn't care about, Lauren was too busy flirting with Puck to learn any choreography, Artie was trying to find out what Brittany and I were talking about, and Rachel and Finn were bickering.

"I still can't believe you did this to me," he said.

"Look, I've apologized for cheating on you, and I probably could have found a better way to end our relationship, but we're over, and I think we need to move past this," Rachel replied.

I listened to them go back and forth until I was sick of hearing Finn talk. I took to staring at the clock, waiting for glee to be over. When Mr. Schue finally gave up and let us go early, I stayed in my seat, waiting for everyone else to leave, knowing that Rachel would be the last one in the room, considering she always seemed to be working on some solo or another. She was sitting at the piano, and I walked up to her.

"So here's how this is gonna go," I said, and she jumped.

"Santana! I didn't know you were still here," she said, hand on her chest, looking all adorable...except not, because I don't think people are adorable. Whatever.

"Yeah, well, I am, so listen up. I'll call you by your name if we're in private, but I'm not calling you that in front of everyone else, got it? That's my compromise."

Rachel thought for a moment before she finally looked at me. "Don't use the nicknames anymore, and we have a deal."

"No," I said. "I still have an image to keep up."

"You can still call me Berry. I'm not asking you to be my knight in shining armor and save me from all the bullying. I'm not even asking you to stop bullying me all together, I just don't think I can be intimate with someone-"

"I wouldn't call it being intimate, Berry." I didn't want her getting the wrong idea about what we were to each other.

"Fine, I can't see myself _fucking _someone if they can't even stop calling me Treasure Trail. Cut the nicknames. That's my compromise, Santana."

I groaned. I'd never even really liked the nicknames, but I was used to them, and at this point, I didn't wanna let Rachel win. She was already too cocky in this...whatever we were. Hell, she was already too cocky in everything that she did in her entire life. On the other hand, hearing her say fucking had me even wetter than I had been before this conversation started, and I sort of felt like I'd do anything to get her to lick me.

"Fine," I said. "Rachel in private, Berry in public. You win."

She smiled at me, then stood up and kissed me. She pulled away a lot faster than I wanted her to.

"Okay, I have to get going. I have ballet, and I don't want to be late," she said, grabbing her things.

"Are you fucking serious?" I yelled.

She turned back to me and smiled. "Yeah, of course I'm serious."

I was at a loss. No...there was no way that I was going to let Rachel fucking Berry walk out that door again.

"Rachel!" I said. That grabbed her attention. She turned around and faced me. "Put your stuff down and come here." Surprisingly, Rachel did it without arguing. "You're not leaving."

"Santana, while I understand that you may want to continue this conversation, I really need to-" I cut her off with a kiss. I pushed her up against the piano, and I pulled away from her.

"I said you aren't leaving, understand?" She looked like she was about to argue, so I started kissing her neck in that spot that I'd discovered on Friday night could even get Rachel to shut up. I slipped my hand into her panties and started dragging my fingers up and down her slit. I really loved how wet Rachel got for me.

"San...please...don't tease me," she whined out. I laughed at her, and she moaned.

"Are you seriously telling me not to tease you? After all the crap you've pulled on me today?" She kept trying to push herself against my hand to get some friction, but I wasn't having any of that. "If you don't stay still, I'm not going to finish you." Rachel nodded, and I kept talking. "You know, all day today, I've been so turned on that I didn't even consider that you were probably in the same state I was in. I should've known that you were probably just waiting for me to take you all day, fill you up with my fingers, am I right?" She nodded again, words failing her. "Well, let's see how you like this." I pulled my hand out of her pants.

"No!" she yelled out. "No, please, no! Don't do that to me!"

"Why not?" I asked, feeling good that I was in control again. "It's what you did to me."

"I'm sorry," she said out of breath. "I'm so, so sorry, and I promise to never do that again. Please, just fuck me. I'll...I'll do anything, I just need you inside me."

I had to bite my lip to keep in a moan. I'd never had anyone beg like this. Sure, guys had begged, but it was usually before I'd agreed, and it was usually more like whining. Seeing Rachel so desperate for me was so incredibly hot, and I wanted to see how far I could push it now that the ball was in my court.

"I think you need to know how I felt," I said, taking a few steps towards the door. She grabbed my sleeve, and pulled me back to the piano.

"I'll make it up to you," she said, pulling my skirt down and dropping to her knees, just like she had when we were in the janitor's closet. Difference was, she didn't stop. She sucked my clit into her mouth, and I knew this wouldn't take long. I'd been right on the edge all day.

"God yes, Rachel. Right there..." she stopped sucking on my clit, and for a second, I thought she was going to keep up this teasing game that we'd adopted, but then, she stuck her tongue inside of me and started rubbing tight circles around my clit with her fingers. I lost it, and came in her mouth, gripping the piano for dear life. She licked at me for a little while, letting me get through the aftershock of my orgasm. She stood back up and kissed me.

"Does that make up for earlier?" she asked me.

"It's a start," I said. I flipped our position so she was pinned against the piano and I started kissing her. I pulled away after a second. "I still don't know if you've made it up to me."

"Santana, are you going to make me get on my knees?" she asked, and I laughed.

"I'm pretty sure you already did." I grabbed her and hoisted her onto the piano, and she let out a squeal.

"What're you doing?" she asked me.

"Well, I've always had this fantasy of taking you on top of the piano. I figured this was the perfect time to mark this one off the list." Rachel looked at me sideways. "What?"

"You've _always_ had this fantasy about me?" My eyes widened as I realized what I'd just said.

"Well...not always. I mean, I've always had this fantasy, but it was about Brittany first." She looked like she didn't believe me, so I pulled her underwear off, buried my face in her pussy, and sucked her clit into my mouth.

"Oh my God," she gasped out, tangling her hands in my hair. "Fuck me." She asked, so I delivered. I pushed three fingers into her, and she screamed out in pleasure. I started humming, because I knew that drove her crazy, and she started trying to push more of herself into my mouth. I started moving my hand faster and harder, and Rachel started shaking and moaning my name. Suddenly, I heard the sound of the door opening to the choir room. I tried to pull away from Rachel so I could see who it was, but she was holding my head in place.

"Oh shit! San...Santana...oh God, Santana!" Rachel was coming, but I couldn't even fully enjoy it, because I knew someone was looking at us. What if it was Quinn? This could ruin me. Rachel finally calmed down and let my head go, and I looked at the doorway.

Standing there, looking like she was about to have a stroke, was Ms. Pillsbury.

"Oh my God!" Rachel yelled as she jumped down from the piano and straightened her clothes out as much as she could. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Actually, it's exactly what it looks like, so if you could just excuse us-"

"Santana!" Rachel was in full panic mode. "We just got caught having sex on school property!"

"So?" I shrugged, not getting the big deal. "It was good sex. Besides, I happened to see Ms. Pillsbury over there tear off Mr. Schuester's shirt a while ago."

"You saw that?" Ms. Pillsbury piped in, and I nodded.

"Yeah, Britt and I were hooking up outside and we heard the two of you start singing, so we looked in the window."

"Wait, was this during Rocky Horror?" Rachel asked, and I nodded. "Was that the last time you hooked up with Brittany?"

"Why does that matter?" I asked.

"I...I...uh...okay," Ms. Pillsbury said, pulling my attention away from Rachel. "I'm going to leave now, and never come into this room again." She slowly turned around and left the room. Rachel and I were silent before I burst out laughing.

"Santana Lopez, this is NOT funny!" she yelled at me.

"Um, yeah. Yeah it is. It's actually hilarious!"

"God, I'm never going to be able to look her in the eye again. Did you see her face?"

I just laughed harder. "Calm down. It's really not that bad." Rachel just shook her head and picked up her underwear, but I snatched them out of her hands. "I'm keeping these."

"Why?" she asked.

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "They're a reminder that you're mine." I pulled back, kissed her, and walked out of the room, swaying my hips. I could feel Rachel staring at my ass, and I felt extremely satisfied. "'Bye, Rachel," I called over my shoulder. I liked the power struggle that Rachel and I were having, but I liked to know that I still had the power in this relationship.

Although she did win on the whole calling her Rachel thing...whatever, I'm still winning.


	5. Drama and Jealousy

A/N: It is currently 2:30 AM, so this is probably riddled with mistakes, but I'm way too tired to go back and read it. Hope this chapter is up to snuff (and makes sense). Enjoy, and, as always, R&R.

* * *

Rachel and I hadn't hooked up in a week and a half. At first, it'd been because Rachel was still too mortified from the whole thing in the choir room to even think about hooking up at school, and her dads were insisting on spending more time with her (you know, because her parents actually paid attention to her). Then Coach Sylvester decided to go on a three practice a day kick, and I was pretty much too exhausted to even think about sex. Finally coach toned it down a bit when one of the girls had to go to the emergency room, so I started having free time again. With my free time up, my sex drive was back to normal, and I was ready for a little lovin'.

"Hey, Berry," I said to her as she got stuff out of her locker at lunch.

"Oh, hello, Santana. How are you today?"

I shrugged. "I didn't really come over here to shoot the shit, Berry. I was more wondering what you're doing tonight."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry, but I'm actually going to be very busy this week. I need to put in extra practice this week to show Mr. Schuester that I'm the one that should be singing the solos at regionals. Not that you didn't do a fantastic job, but I feel like we need a more trained voice for the higher levels of competition if we really want a serious chance of beating Vocal Adrenaline and moving on to Nationals."

I just stared at her for a second. "Okay, I'm going to ignore the fact that you just sort of insulted me if you agree to hook up with me later on today. Lunch or after school is fine."

"Well, Santana, as much as I'd love that, I'm afraid I don't have any time today, or for the rest of the week, for that matter. I might be able to get back to you this weekend, but my fathers may want to spend the weekend with me. Next week will probably be better."

I groaned. "God, haven't you spent enough time with your dads?" Really, how much time could a teenager spend with their parents? It isn't normal.

"I don't know about you, but I like spending time with my parents," she said. "I'm sorry, but my entire life doesn't revolve around sex. In fact, I went my entire life before two weeks ago without sex. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to the choir room so I can practice." She walked past me, and I followed her.

"Are you seriously blowing me off right now?" I said, trying to sound angry and not desperate. "Look, it won't even take very long, and you can skip one fucking day of practicing. You've got the best voice anyone's ever heard."

She turned towards me. "Was that a compliment?" she asked.

"No, it was my way of telling you that you can give it a rest for a day so you we can fool around."

She turned away from me and went back to walking. "Santana, I really think you're overreacting to all of this right now," she said. "Just because you need to have sex with me-"

"Wait," I said, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. We were drawing a little bit of attention, but not enough to actually get anyone to stop and listen. "I don't know where you got the idea that I need you. I could have anyone in this entire school, okay?"

"Really?" she said. "Then why are you following me around?"

I just shook my head. "Yeah, that's a good question." I turned around and walked away, wanting to punch something. I heard her call after me, but I ignored her. Who did she think she was? I didn't need her! Yes, she was good in bed, but that didn't mean that there weren't dozens of other kids in the school that weren't just as good as her, if not better. I thought about who I could sleep with, then decided it was safer to go with a sure thing.

"Puck!" I yelled across the hall. He turned to me and looked me up and down.

"Hey, Satan," he said. I rolled my eyes. "What's up?"

"You, me, at your house, tonight. Interested?"

"Always," he said. "I knew you'd come back to the Puckster sooner or later. What took you so long, anyway?"

I just shot him a smile and rubbed up and down his arm. "Oh, that's not important. I'll be at your place about five, alright? No sleepover, though. I need my beauty sleep, and you hog the covers."

"Whatever, Lopez," he said. "Just don't cancel again."

"Oh, trust me." I leaned into his ear. "Tonight, I'm gonna rock your world."

He just laughed. "Yeah, well, you better. You owe me for last time." He walked down the hallway, and I smirked. No, Puck wasn't very good in bed. In fact, he could only get me off about a fourth of the time (that estimate may be a little high), but it was still sex, and it was better than nothing. It's not like sex meant anything to me. He was a warm body, and we had fun together.

Just as I was thinking that my luck was on an upswing, Finn Hudson came walking up to me.

"Okay, what did you do?" he asked.

"Besides your ex?" I replied, taking satisfaction in the little vein I saw pop out on his neck.

"I mean what did you say to her to make her do that with you? She wouldn't even let me get past second base."

"Okay, first of all, I didn't make her do anything. In fact, she came up to me-" He cut me off before I got a chance to finish.

"No," he said. "There's no way. You probably said something about popularity or making me jealous or something like that. She wouldn't do this to me. She loves me."

"Newsflash, Finn: you're the only one stupid enough to fall for something like that. She just wanted to get her freak on, and I was more than happy to help her out."

"It's not true," he said. "She's not a slut like you."

I narrowed my eyes. "Keep it up, Hudson. I might just catch you across the face. Oh, wait. Rachel already did that defending me. Face it; Rachel doesn't want you anymore, okay? She wanted me that night, and I delivered." I didn't wanna tell him that we still had a thing going on. Sure, I was pissed off at her right now, but I didn't know if she wanted Finn to know that...and I didn't want any more of a part in all this stupid drama.

"She loves me!" he yelled, and again, everyone was looking at us. I felt like this weird, twisted love triangle was getting me more attention than the Cheerios ever had. "You've destroyed everything I care about!"

I just shook my head. "Okay, I'm officially over this, now. The two of you are broken up, and I'm now officially not a part of this stupid disaster of a relationship, got it?"

Finn stepped closer to me. "This isn't over. Rachel and I are going to work this out, and you won't be able to screw it up again." He turned around and marched off. I wanted to punch him in the back of his freakishly large head (the only reason it was proportional to the rest of his body was because it was all freakishly large). I was sick of him calling me a slut.

Lunch finally ended, and I went to class more pissed off than I had been in a while. I really should've been looking forward to my night with Puck, or fuming about Frankenteen, but all I could think about was Rachel. I felt like since we'd slept together, my life had become infinitely more complicated. I thought about officially breaking things off with her. I mean, was the best sex of my life really worth all this drama?

Um, yeah. It was pretty obvious that it was. Still, I was pretty sick of having sex on her terms. That was the one nice thing about Puck; the boy knew how to take directions. I was about to text him about tonight, but I saw I had a text. It was from Rachel.

**Are you hooking up with Puck tonight? **I rolled my eyes.

**Howd u find out bout that?**

I tried to pay attention to my teacher. I really wasn't doing well in math, and I needed it to stay on the Cheerios. Yeah, my teacher had decided to make an example of any cheerleaders or jocks that were failing his class. It was lame. In any case I really tried to focus, but it was so boring, and I got my reply from Rachel.

**Puck's been bragging about it all class. Why are you sleeping with him? Do you even like it?** I typed out my reply.

**Y do u care? U turned me down. Ur loss.**

"Was that a phone I saw, Miss Lopez?" My head snapped up to see my teacher staring at me.

"Um...no?" I answered.

"Oh, really? Then you can tell me the answer to the question I just asked."

Shit. I had no idea what the fuck he'd been talking about, but I couldn't let him know that. I looked over at the paper of the kid next to me. Cheer leading bread excellence peripheral vision.

"X=7?" I said. My teacher just shot me a death glare.

"You were lucky this time, Miss Lopez. Don't let me catch you again, or it'll be a trip to the principal's office." He went back to facing the board, and I smirked. Yeah, I was good at stuff like that. I pulled my phone out and saw the newest text from Rachel.

**What if I told you that I'd rearranged my schedule and I was free after school today? We could go to my house after glee club gets out. If anybody sees us together, I could just say that you were getting vocal lessons from me...which wouldn't be far from the truth. Your vocal chords would be getting plenty of exercise.**

My mouth dropped. I looked up to make sure my teacher was still facing the white board. Damn, I really hated (and secretly loved) how much Berry could get under my skin. I had to get the upper hand.

**I dont need u, k? Puck will do me just fine. Besides, how do u no youre even better than he is?**

I knew that would get her. If anything was true about Rachel Berry, it was that she always tried to win a competition. It took a little while to reply. I figured that it was because she was texting out an entire paragraph highlighting the benefits of us engaging in lesbian sex or something like that, but her text was actually rather short.

**There's no way that his dick can match up with my tongue.**

I laughed under my breath.

**Cocky much? No pun intended. U need an ego check. Ur not the best ive ever had.**

Yes, that was a lie, but Rachel did need to tone it back. I didn't want her thinking that she had me pussy whipped or something. It only took her a second to get back to me.

**That's not what you said our first time together. I believe the word was 'incredible' right around orgasm number five.**

I shook my head. I knew that was going to get me in trouble when I said it, but it had slipped out, and I didn't feel like taking it back later. I figured it would just kill the mood.

**I didnt say u werent good. I said u werent the best.**

I'd barely put my phone down in my lap before I felt it buzz again. Damn, that girl could text.

**Seriously? Are you trying to tell me that you'd rather be with Puck that have my fingers inside you? You'd rather have him coming in your mouth than me? I really doubt that, San, because I've never seen you chase after Puck like you chase after me.**

I hated it when she was right. This fucking sucked. All this dirty talk had gotten me so fucking turned on, I crossed my legs and took in a deep breath, but it didn't help much. I needed to turn this conversation around.

**Ur one to talk. U changed all ur plans 4 2day just because ur jealous that im sleeping with Puck.**

I felt the smug smile creep onto my face. A few minutes went by with no reply, and I was getting agitated. I actually went back to trying to pay attention to my teacher, but my phone buzzed yet again, and my thoughts were back on Berry.

**I'm not, nor will I ever be jealous of Noah Puckerman. He's a neanderthal, and he has nothing that I want.**

I wanted to laugh again, but my teacher was glancing at me every few seconds.

**Sure, Berry. U want me just as much as I want u, and you totally are jealous of Puck. Ur probably dripping wet right now, just thinking of me hovering over u, pumping in and out, kissing you right where u like it. Never felt like this with Finn, did it?**

The bell rang before she could text back, but I knew that I was wearing her down. I didn't, however, expect her to meet me at my locker.

"What's up, Berry?" I asked, trying to keep the utter arousal out of my voice. The look in her eyes was doing things to my body. Didn't know I could react like that just from a look.

"Okay. You win today. Just come over after glee."

I wanted to jump up and down. I'd always played the coy act with boys, but I'd never had it thrown back in my face, but I was finally adjusting, and the ball was back in my court.

"I don't know...I did promise I'd go to Puck's. I don't think he'd like me canceling again."

"I don't care," she barked out. "Look, I know that I turned you down earlier, and I said a few things that probably should have been left unsaid, but I'd appreciate it if we could move forward."

I laughed. "Okay, I'll come over," I said. Her face lit up, and I almost didn't want to put her through this last bit of torture. "On one condition."

"Okay," she said warily.

"You have to admit that you got jealous of Puck," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

Rachel shook her head. "I assure you, Santana. The only reason I'm coming to you is because you've gotten me worked up, and I'm sick of taking care of things myself."

I raised my eyebrow. "Have you been getting yourself off, Berry?"

"Well, considering that our schedules never seemed to line up, I had to do something."

"Did you think about me?" She blushed. "Come on, Berry. There's nothing to be embarrassed about." She took a few more seconds to think, then she slowly nodded. I felt my knees go weak. Berry had thought about me while masturbating. "God, that's so hot." I hadn't really meant to say it out loud, but it seemed to put Rachel at ease, so it was all good with me.

"Really?" she said. "I thought you might make fun of me or something."

"Hell no," I said. "I just hope you call me the next time you do it. I'd love to hear you get yourself off."

She blushed again, and I couldn't help but briefly (_very_ briefly) thinking it was cute...like the cutest thing I'd ever seen. "Okay, this has been really nice, but I need to be going. I can't be late to class." She tried to walk by me, but I blocked her way.

"You still haven't met our condition yet, Berry." I was surprised I hadn't forgotten, seeing as all I could think about was Rachel naked in her bed touching herself moaning my name...wait, what was I talking about again?

"I'm not admitting or denying anything." Oh yeah, Puck.

"Whatever. You're the only one suffering if you don't admit it. I have a back-up." It was a lie. Sure, I did actually have a back-up, but it was looking like a pretty poor substitute right about now. I was pretty sure that if Rachel called my bluff, I was going to fold. Luckily for me, her resolve crumbled faster than mine did.

"Fine...I...I changed my plans and convinced my dads to go on a date tonight because I didn't want Puck touching you. I wanted to be the one inside of you. I was jealous."

Checkmate, bitch.

"See? Was that so hard?" She shook her head, and I smiled. "I'll follow you to your house after glee."

Rachel flashed me a smile. "Good. Great. Well, I really need to go. I really can't be late. I'll see you in an hour, San!" She said as she walked away. Man, Puck was going to be pissed off at me. I figured I'd make it up to him later somehow. If I'd thought about everything, I probably would've seen that it wasn't good that Rachel was getting jealous. I didn't want her thinking that we were gonna be exclusive or anything. Unfortunately, all my mind could focus on was the fact that I was gonna get some, so life was looking pretty good.


	6. A Proper Conversation

After our little power struggle, Rachel and I had decided that denying each other sex just wasn't going to work. Sure, if there was actually something that we had to do, we'd reschedule or something, but other than that, the word 'no' didn't really exist anymore. In fact, we'd settled into a nice routine. On the days I didn't have Cheerios practice, I would take her to school, and we'd stop somewhere along the road to make out. Then we'd wait until lunch to hook up again (we used to do it during a class, but Rachel went on about how she needed a proper education and impeccable grades to get into Julliard and fulfill her hopes and dreams). Most of the time, it was just making out, because Rachel was still super paranoid about getting caught again.

We'd usually get down to business after school. On my off days, Rachel would come over to my house. On the days I had Cheerios after school, we'd go to Rachel's, because her parents got home later than mine did. Things had been going on like this for almost two months, and I was very pleased with the way our arrangement was working out. Sure, Puck was starting to wonder why I wasn't trying to jump him, but lately, he'd gotten this weird crush on Lauren Zizes, so it was pretty much purely out of curiosity.

"Seriously, though," he said to me one day between classes. "You're usually all sort of pissed when I start showing interest in other girls. You haven't even batted an eyelash about Lauren and I."

"Well, first off, there is no Lauren and you to be pissed off about. She's rejected you several times, now. And second of all, you'll be over her in, like, a day, and then you'll come crawling back to me."

"You know, it is possible for a person to change. Just because I wasn't serious about girls before doesn't mean that I'm not now." He looked me up and down. "Besides, I'm so over you and you ditching me for whoever you've been hooking up with lately. I just wanna know who it is."

"Who who is?" Brittany asked as she walked up to us.

"Who Santana's been sleeping with since she isn't getting it from either of us anymore," Puck answered.

"Oh, she hasn't told you?" Brittany said, and I wanted to strangle her.

"Britt, don't say anything else."

Puck's eyes went wide. "Wait, Brittany knows who this mystery guy is?"

"It's not a gu-" I clapped my hand over Brittany's mouth.

"Okay, this conversation is over." Brittany mumbled something against my hand, but I didn't understand it. "I'm going to let you talk if you promise me that you won't tell Puck who I'm sleeping with, got it?" Brittany nodded.

"Dude, that's so not fair," he said crossing his arms over his chest like a poutting three-year-old. "You know I'm gonna figure it out eventually. Don't forget that my girl knows how to bug rooms and stuff." Puck walked off down the hallway.

"How come you don't want Puck knowing about you and Rachel?" Brittany asked me. My eyes went wide and I looked around to make sure nobody had heard her.

"Jesus, Britt, could you keep your voice down?" I said.

"Oh...sorry." I rolled my eyes and smiled. Even when she was being clueless she was sort of adorable. She went on, but she decided to lean in and whisper. "I know you don't want everyone knowing you're gay, but I don't think Puck'll care. He'll probably think it's hot or something. I mean, he always wanted us to make out at parties."

"For the thousandth time, Brittany, I'm not gay. And I don't want him to know because then he'll think I'm gay, and I'm not."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "San, you sleep with girls, and you don't brag about it or invite guys to watch. You're at least a little gay."

"I'm not telling anyone about Rachel and I, okay? And I'm not gay. Just drop it." This whole gay thing what really starting to piss me off. "I mean, girls sleep with girls in high school all the time. It's called experimenting."

Brittany just cocked her head to the side. "I didn't know you were so afraid of this. I mean, I knew you were scared, but you're, like, pale right now. I won't talk about it anymore, okay?"

Part of me was relieved that Brittany was dropping it, but the other part of me knew she'd bring it up again, and knew that she was right about it scaring me. I decided to ignore that part, like I always did.

"Thank you," I finally said. "So was there something you needed to talk to me about?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to sing Artie a song for Valentine's Day, and I didn't know what to sing. I thought about writing a song, but when I tried that, it was, like, four pages long, and it ended up being about ducks, and it sort of didn't make any sense."

I laughed. "Just sing him that, anyways. He'll think it's adorable." Sure, I didn't like Artie, but he treated Brittany well, so I didn't wanna sabotage that. "If all else fails, you can always do a dance for him."

"Oooh, like a lap dance?" she asked.

"Whatever floats your boat," I said back to her. "If you want better advice, ask Rachel. She's the one that's good at all that music stuff." Brittany smirked, and I was confused. "What?"

"Okay, I'll make sure I ask _Rachel_ for her advice. _Rachel_ really is good with music, and _Rachel_ is always willing to talk about it. I'm sure _Rachel_ will have a good idea."

I was still lost. "Did I miss something?"

Brittany huffed. "You can be so dumb sometimes." Yeah, still lost. "You just called her Rachel. Not Manhands, not Ru Paul, not even Berry. Rachel."

I groaned. We'd been having sex so much lately that it just became natural to call her by her first name. I tried to play it off. "Whatever, the nicknames were Quinn's lame idea anyways."

"Okay, San," Brittany said. "I'll see you later." She walked away. I went to class and zoned out thinking about Rachel. I'd actually been doing that a lot as of late. I figured that it was I'd been spending so much time with her and pretty much no one else. I didn't really have many friends. Quinn and I were always fighting for the top, so she didn't really count. Sure, I had Puck and Brittany, but they were both into other people, so they didn't follow me around like they used to. Rachel, in some ways, was the closest relationship I had at the moment. I tried not to think about that too often, because it was incredibly pathetic.

Just as I was about to drop off to sleep during Spanish class, I felt my phone buzz in my lap. I opened it, and I smiled when I saw it was from Rachel.

**Yours or mine, today?**

I thought about it for a second. No, I didn't have Cheerios, but I was pretty sure that my brother had said something about having people over to the house, and I didn't feel like dealing with that.

**Urs.**

I figured that would be the end of it, but I got another text.

**Must you type in text-speak? It's really rather unappealing, and it doesn't take much effort to type correctly on a phone now that they come with full QWERTY keyboards.**

I rolled my eyes. She really needed to loosen up.

**U can read it so I dont care.**

I could almost feel Rachel's eye-roll from across the campus.

**Fine, be stubborn. I'll see you at my house at four.**

I just smirked and put my phone back in my lap. The rest of the school day went by so slowly, and I found myself more than once staring at the clock, willing it to go faster. When the school day finally ended, I practically sprinted out to my car and drove over to Rachel's. She'd somehow managed to beat me there, though, so she was already in her room by the time I got there. She'd left the door unlocked, so I just walked in. She jumped when I opened her door.

"I thought I told you not to come over until four," she said as she sat on her bed."

"Yeah, I'm not much for waiting," I said.

"Still, this completely throws off my schedule. I'd planned to do my vocal exercises before you got here." I sat down next to her and started planting kisses on her neck, but she kept talking. "I...um...I admit that being with you is very exciting and definitely the high point in my day, but I...I...I still have to think about my career..." I ran my hand under her sweater. "And you should...oh God, San...you should really focus on your studies, too."

I pulled away from her neck. "Why are you still talking?"

"I don't know," she said, grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me in for a kiss. Next thing I knew, we were both topless, bra-less, still kissing, and I was straddling Rachel, one hand pinning her hands over her head, and one hand in her underwear, playing with her clit.

"Fuck," Rachel gasped out, pulling away from me. "I wanna touch you."

"Nope," I said. "Not until your finished." I pushed down a little harder on her wrists, and she winced and moaned at the same time. It hadn't taken me long to figure out that Rachel liked it just as rough as I did.

"Then at least stop fucking teasing me," she panted out. It was amazing how much Rachel's vocabulary devolved when she was caught up in the moment. I dropped my head a little bit and took one of her nipples into my mouth. A second later, I pushed three fingers into her. I think she tried to tell me that she liked what I was doing, but it sort of came out as a mumbled mess. A few minutes later, and she was right on the edge, waiting for me to push er over.

"Santana...please...I'm so-"

"Rachel?" a voice from downstairs called, and we both froze. Well, I froze, and Rachel kept trying to fuck herself on my fingers.

"Oh my God, is that your dad?" I asked her.

"I didn't hear anything," she said. "Just keep going."

"Rach, sweetie, are you here?" Yeah, that was definitely Rachel's dad. In the blink of an eye, I was off of her and fully clothed.

"Rachel! Get yourself together and put a shirt on!" I whisper-yelled. She grumbled something and threw her sweater back over her head, not even bothering with the bra. It wasn't over her head a second before her dad came into the room.

"Oh, hello," he said. "I didn't think you were home. I called for you, but I guess you didn't hear. Are you feeling alright? You look a little flush."

"I'm just not feeling my best. Your home early," she said, hiding the pure hatred in her voice pretty well. I still heard it, though.

"Yeah, the boss cut us early because we pulled in a big account today." He looked at me. "Who's your friend?" he asked.

"Oh, how rude of me," Rachel said standing up. I stood up, too. "Daddy, this is Santana. Santana, this is my daddy."

"You can call me David," he said, extending his hand forward. It was only then that I realized that I still had Rachel all over my hand. I put my hands behind my back.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I think Rachel got me sick, too, and I don't wanna spread germs or anything," I said. "My dad's a doctor, so health is really important to me...and stuff." Rachel looked at me, and I just ignored her. I'd have to explain later.

"Oh, okay," he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "It's actually quite nice to finally meet you. Rachel's been talking our ears off about you for weeks."

"Daddy, please don't," Rachel said, and I couldn't help the small smirk that came up on my face.

"Nonsense, Rachel. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm just glad you're hanging out with someone other than that Finn Hudson."

"Yeah, Rachel," I said. "He's an idiot." Rachel glared at me.

"I never did get what you saw in that boy," he said. "He was much too tall for you."

"Daddy, I don't pick out my potential suitors according to their height," she said.

"He's also got the IQ of a door handle." I couldn't help but laugh at that one.

"Daddy! That's mean!" Rachel yelled, but I couldn't help but notice the smile on her face.

"Okay! Okay! I just came up here to see if you were home. I'll be downstairs if you girls need anything," he said as he walked away. "Nice to meet you, Santana!"

I just laughed. "Damn, Berry, your dad's cool."

She just flopped herself on the bed and screamed into her pillow. I didn't get it until I remembered just how close she'd been to finishing. The thought just turned me on, and I discretely licked her come off of my fingers before sitting next to her on the bed.

"I really, _really_ hate him right now," she said as she turned over to face me.

I laughed. "I have to say that you recovered pretty well."

She just shrugged. "No matter how stressed...or completely, utterly turned on...I am, I'm always an actress, and I can always compose myself."

"Well, your room is soundproofed," I said, rubbing her leg. "We could always finish where we left off."

She pushed my hand away. "I don't wanna risk getting caught. The last thing I need my fathers to see is me with my head between your legs or any other compromising position that they could find us in."

I sighed. "Okay, so then what do you wanna do?" I asked.

She sat up. "Well, we could always rehearse. We really do need to figure out what we'll be singing for Regionals."

I shook my head. "No, that's not gonna happen." She started to argue, but I put my hand up. "No! I'm not singing!"

"Fine!" she said. "What if we...watch a movie?"

I thought about it before I finally nodded. "Just no musicals."

"I figured you'd say that," she said, pouting. "Then what are you in the mood for, Oh Mighty One?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know, wha'cha got?" She pointed in the direction of her movies, and I looked through them. I finally picked out a movie and threw it to her.

"Valentine's Day?" she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"What?" I asked. "I'm not in the mood to think right now, and it's a mindless rom-com." The truth was, I sort of loved rom-coms, but I wasn't about to admit that out loud to anyone but Brittany.

"Okay," Rachel said as she put in the movie. We sat next to each other on the bed. "Do you want anything to eat?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm good," I said. We watched a lot of the movie in silence, until I looked over at Rachel...and she almost looked like she was about to cry. "What's up?"

She rubbed the tears out of her eyes, then looked over at me. "Oh, nothing."

"Oh, please," I said. "I saw your eyes get all shiny. What's with the almost water-works?"

She sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap. "You'll just make fun of me if I tell you."

"Probably," I said without thinking. She sighed again, and I realized how stupid what I'd just said was. "I didn't mean that. It just came out. I won't make fun of you...probably...unless you were crying about the movie, because that's lame."

She laughed and shook her head. "No, it's not the movie."

"Then what?" I asked.

"I just..." she stopped, but went on after a beat. "I was just really looking forward to finally having someone on Valentine's Day. I've always been single, and I thought that this was going to be the year that I could walk through the halls at school, head held high, and Finn on my arm. It was going to be perfect...before I messed everything up."

"Hey," I said, scooting closer to her, and she looked up at me. "This wasn't your fault. He's the one who lied about sleeping with me." I was really starting to feel guilty about that whole thing. "This isn't your fault, Rachel."

"I still cheated," she said. I went to say something, but she kept talking. "That's not even important. What is important is that I'm going to spend yet another year alone on Valentine's Day."

This was weird. There was Rachel, all sad and crying. I usually wasn't good with this type of stuff because, well, I was a good portion of the time the reason why people were crying, but I found myself wiping away Rachel's tears with one hand and pulling her closer with the other.

"Look," I said. "Having someone on Valentine's Day isn't all it's cracked up to be. Guys usually buy you really stupid presents and take you on cheap dates before trying to say that the day was so romantic that you should let them get into your pants." Rachel laughed, and it made me feel...weirdly happy. I shook it off. "Trust me, you're better off alone."

She looked down again. "I feel like I'm always going to be alone."

"Come on, Berry," I said. "There's no way. You'll find some dude that's super into loud, pushy chicks." I wondered why I sounded so bitter as I said that. "In the meantime, we could always hang out on V-Day."

She looked up at me again. "You would do that?" she asked, a smile forming.

"It's not like I have anything better to do," I said. "It's better than spending the night at some stupid party and getting trashed."

She blushed a little bit, and I felt myself pull her a little closer. "I would really like that, Santana." She leaned in and kissed me...and yeah, I'd kissed her a bunch of times, but this one was different. It was softer and slower and it wasn't hungry like all our other kisses were. When she finally pulled away, I felt a little light headed. I swayed a little. "Are you okay?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I just...maybe I am coming down with something," I said. "I think I'm gonna head home."

"Oh," she said, looking a little disappointed, and I couldn't help but want to stay. This was just...odd. "Will you come back tomorrow?"

"Yeah, of course. You know I can't go very long without gettin' some." She laughed at me as I got up. She even walked me out to my car. As I drove home, I couldn't help but feel like something had changed. I didn't know what it was, but I just figured that I was finally learning to be able to tolerate Berry.

That's when I realized that was the first time we'd ever talked about anything outside of sex.


	7. VDay Part 1: Choir Room Confrontations

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I got a nasty case of writer's block.

A/N 2: I'll probably be borrowing canon throughout this story, but it will more often than not be tweaked to serve my Pezberry motives.

A/N 3: Someone said in a review that something I wrote in the previous chapter was biphobic. If I ever come off that way, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for it to seem that way.

On to the story...

* * *

I woke up the morning of Valentine's Day feeling pretty damn good. I didn't really know why, but I felt like it was gonna be a good day. The fact that I knew I was gonna get some probably had something to do with my good mood. I got out of bed and immediately checked my phone. I had five texts.

**Rise n shine Sanny!-B**

Britt had been sending me a wake-up text since we both got phones in the 6th grade. I just shook my head, smiled, and went on to the next text. Unfortunately, it was from Quinn.

**Sylvester's making us practice 2day after skool. Nobody make any plans.**

I groaned. Of course Sue couldn't even let us have one day off, even on Valentine's Day. Actually, I should've expected it, considering she was married to herself or whatever.

**I got lauren 4 pounds of chocolate 4 v-day. Should I get ne-thing else?**

That one, obviously, was from Puck. I couldn't believe he was buying gifts for Lauren Zizes. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone or something...he'd told me on more than one occasion while we were dating that he didn't date fat chicks. I guess glee club really had changed him. Then again, before glee, I never would've thought that I would be sleeping with Rachel Berry. Speaking of Rachel, the last text was from her.

**Finn called an emergency glee meeting this morning, so we're all going to meet in the choir room before school. I figured I'd text you because I assume he'll try to leave you out. He isn't very happy with you at the moment. **That one was followed by another from Rachel. **Oh, and after that, I'll let you know my plans for us tonight.**

I rolled my eyes. I should've figured that Rachel would plan out the entire day. I also didn't really like the idea that I had to go to a group meeting led by Finnocence, because, well, I hated him, but I got ready as fast as I could and went to school and straight to the choir room. Surprisingly, the only one there was Rachel. She was sitting at the piano, playing random notes when I walked in. I thought about announcing myself, but I figured it would be funnier to scare the crap out of her, so I snuck up behind her and leaned right next to her ear.

"Boo," I whispered, and she almost jumped out of her skin. I almost fell on the floor laughing.

"Santana!" she yelled. "That wasn't funny! You could've sent me into a full-scale panic attack!"

"Jesus, calm down," I said between laughs. "You're do damn dramatic." _And hot _I wanted to add. Her chest was heaving and she'd made this whimpering sound when I'd scared her.

"Yes, well, I think that everyone is aware of my tendency to slightly blow things out of proportion." She leaned up against the piano, and I walked up to her.

"Y'know, the last time we were in here together alone-"

"No," Rachel said before I could even finish. "We got caught last time. We're not doing that again." I stepped right into her face, and I smirked when all Rachel could do was stare at my lips. "Santana...don't."

"Don't what?" I asked. "I'm not doing anything." I put my hands on her hips.

"You...you know what you're doing. You're...you're..."

"Hot?" I finished for her.

"Yeah...but...that's not what I was going to say..." Our lips were so close. All one of us had to do was lean forward a bit, and we'd be kissing. Unfortunately, I heard footsteps coming down the hall towards the choir room, so I took a few steps away from her. Sam, Quinn, and Mercedes came in together.

"Hey," Quinn said. "You two the only ones here?"

"Yeah," Rachel managed to get out. I was still trying to catch my breath. Every time things got like that with Rachel, it was sort of intense, and it always took me a little while to clear my head. We'd been having more and more moments like that since that day in her room.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill each other," Quinn said sitting down. I just shrugged and sat down, too. Rachel sat on the piano bench, probably trying to keep her distance from me. Hey, I'm hot, and she probably didn't trust herself so close to me. It didn't take long for everyone else to wander in. Finn was the last one in the room. He started talking about how he was a celebrity and how he was opening up a kissing booth to raise money for the club.

It was a bunch of bullshit. Wheezy figured he was doing it to kiss a bunch of girls, but I knew he just wanted to get Rachel to play tonsil hockey with him again. Just thinking about that giant oaf with his mouth on Rachel's made me fucking sick to my stomach.

"I've kissed Finn, and can I just say, not worth a buck," I said, and a few people laughed. "I would, however, pay a hundred dollars to jiggle one of his man boobs." I really loved being a bitch, but it was just so much sweeter when I was being bitchy to Finn.

He didn't looked quite as amused. "Do you ever get tired of tearing other people down?"

"No, not really." Actually, I did, but only when I liked the people I was torturing. Making Finn look like a loser was easy and satisfying.

He kept flapping his stupid mouth. "Because you always just seem to be meddling in everybody else's business."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. You guys love me," I said to the club. "I keep it real, and I'm hilarious."

"No, actually, you're just a bitch," Lauren said, and it caught me off guard. This wasn't even about her, and she had to throw in her own two cents.

"I'm sorry, you've just got eyes for my man." I brought Puck into it because he always defended me. He got that I was a bitch, but I'm still a human being.

"Okay, first of all, I'm not your man. You've blown me off enough for me to get that," he said. Okay, I deserved that a little.

"And Finn is right," Quinn jumped in. Of course Quinn would have something to say. She loved tearing me down. "All you ever do is insult us. Three weeks ago, you said you were disappointed that I didn't have a lizard baby."

"Five minutes ago, you said Mr. Schue belonged in a twelve-step program." Damn, even Stutters was turning against me.

"Wait, what?" Mr Schuester asked.

"You're addicted to vests," I explained. I actually liked him, but God, did he have to wear a vest every damn day? It made him look like a creepy pedophile or something.

"The truth is, Santana, you can dish it out but you can't take it," Finn came back in, probably glowing inside since he got all my "friends" to gang up on me. "Okay, maybe you're right. Maybe I'll be stuck in Lima teaching kids how to drag their knuckles on the ground, but the only job you're gonna have is on a pole!"

That's the thing about Finn; he's just as much of an asshole as I am. He used to throw kids in dumpsters, he cheated on Quinn with Rachel more than once, he'd used people, and he said the most vile shit. The difference between the two of us was that I didn't ever pretend to be anything else. Finn always had this moral superiority thing so he could make people feel like shit and still look like the good guy.

I looked around the room, hoping that somebody..._anybody..._would take my side. As much as I hated to admit it, I really cared about what the glee kids thought about me. I mean, I knew I was awesome, but it helped to hear it from other people from time to time. I knew Puck wouldn't take my side because he was trying to impress Lauren, but I figured Britt would say something. I looked at her, but she just stayed silent in Artie's lap, looking at the ground. I didn't even look at Rachel; I didn't think I could take the look of indifference on her face.

"Fine," I said, grabbing my bags and walking out of the room, trying to keep the tears out of my eyes. I heard Mr. Schue calling after me, but I didn't turn around. This was fucking stupid. A year ago, I didn't give two shits about what anybody in that room thought about me, especially Rachel fucking Berry. Now, I was in a disgusting bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror and rubbing my eyes, trying desperately to not cry.

When the bathroom door opened, I figured it was some stupid freshman, and I yelled for them to get out.

"Santana, are you okay?" I turned around and saw Rachel standing there, and I found myself wanting to throw myself into her arms and cry my eyes out. I shook it off.

"What're you doing here?" I asked.

"I...I followed you. I wanted to make sure you were alright, but I should've figured that you wouldn't be." She stepped closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "They shouldn't have ganged up on you like that."

"Whatever," I mumbled out. "It's not like they're wrong."

Rachel shook her head. "I think they were." I raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay, you tend to be brutally honest with people without even a semblance of tact, but I often find myself guilty of the same thing."

"And yet, you still have friends and people who wanna be around you...for whatever reason."

"Look, Santana. You and I aren't all that different." I scowled, and she laughed at me. "We're both misunderstood, strong-willed, and often blunt individuals who have difficulties having relationships. I've started to accept that, and you should, too. You don't need the approval of the club. Hell, you're Santana Lopez; you don't need anybody's approval."

I shook my head. She was right. I didn't need anybody else to tell me I was a bad ass. I was hot, smart, talented, and did I mention that I was hot? God, glee club was making me soft. I needed to show them that I was still the top bitch in this school, even if Quinn had pulled some shit to regain head Cheerio.

"Y'know, Berry, you're not so bad," I said, and I was surprised by the blush that rose on her cheeks. I got up and walked out of the bathroom.

"Hey, wait!" Rachel called after me just before I got out the door. "I still haven't told you my plans for tonight.

I rolled my eyes. "Can't you just go one night without planning out every detail? I mean, live a little."

She opened and closed her mouth a few times before she finally spoke. "I don't do that, Santana. If I don't make plans and schedules, then I might miss vital opportunities to further my career. Worse, I might let things get out of hand, and I could get caught on camera doing something stupid.

"Oh my God, you really need to chill out. Not everything is about your career or singing or whatever. Haven't you just done something for fun without it having to do with some greater scheme?"

"Um...not really, no. I just don't think anything good can come from being impulsive. I-"

I cut her off by pinning her against the wall and kissing her neck. All that came out of her mouth from that moment on was moans and whimpers. After a little while, I pulled back and laughed when Rachel tried to stop me from pulling away.

"You should try it out, Rachel. It's not so bad." I walked out of the bathroom with a spring in my step. Sure, everyone was trying to cut me down, but after my little pep talk with Rachel, I didn't really care. If Rachel was still hanging around, then I couldn't be that bad. Then I remembered how long she'd hung around Hudson, and I reconsidered that thought, but it still didn't bring me down too much.

"Santana!" I heard a voice say from behind me. I didn't even have to turn around to know it was Brittany. As soon as we were facing each other, she'd wrapped her arms around me.

"Hey, Britt. What's up?"

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier. I was afraid that I might say something that would make it worse, so I just stayed quiet, and I was gonna chase after you, but Rachel did it first, so I stayed and glared at everybody for you."

I laughed. "Thanks, Britt."

She finally let me go. "I just didn't want you to be mad at me. You're my best friend, and if I could think of good comebacks and stuff, I would've told everybody off for you."

I just hugged her again. It was nice to know I did have people in my corner. We let go, and she started rambling again.

"What're you doing tonight? I guess Kurt told Finn to tell everybody that he's having his show choir sing at Breadstix tonight, and afterwards, Puck's throwing a party because his mom's out of town. I think we'd have enough time to get ready for both if we hurry home after Cheerios."

"Will there be liquor?" I asked, then smacked myself on the forehead. "Stupid question. Puck's physically unable of throwing a party without alcohol."

Brittany just smiled and nodded. "So are you in?"

I shrugged. "That depends. Who's invited?"

"Just the glee kids," she replied. "He doesn't want his house getting trashed again." I smiled a little bit, remembering how the last party he'd thrown, several of the guys on the football team had decided that they didn't want to use the bathroom and decided to just pee in the corners of Puck's living room. He'd had to pay to get the entire house sanitized and all of the carpets replaced.

"Eh, I don't know. It sounds lame, and I might have plans tonight."

"With who?" she asked, and I immediately regretted telling her. I didn't wanna tell her the truth because then she'd go on and on about the gay thing again. Of course, she figured it out on her own. "Oh! With Rachel?" I nodded. "Is this, like, your first date? Aw, that's so romantic!"

"It's not a date, Britt. We're just hanging out because we're both single and don't have anything better to do."

"Yeah, you're just hanging out...on Valentine's Day." She stepped closer to me. "Valentine's Day is, like, the most romantic day of the year, and-"

"It's just a day, Brittany!" She rolled her eyes and looked like she was about to say something, so I went on without giving her a chance to answer. "You know what? I'm going to the stupid party, lame or not. I could use a few drinks."

Brittany jumped up and down and clapped her hands, distracted for the moment from her constant questioning of my sexuality. "Great! Oh, this is going to be so much fun! I have to go find Artie so we can walk to class. I'll see you around, San!" She went down the hall, practically skipping. I just laughed again. That girl could always put a smile on my face, even if she was trying to make me see something about myself I didn't wanna see.

I went to class and debated inviting Rachel to this party or not. I knew she'd find out about it sooner or later, and we'd both end up going, but I knew she'd get her feelings all hurt if she found out I'd agreed to go without telling her. The old Santana, the one that I was trying to convince everyone that I still was, would completely blow Rachel off. It took me three class periods to finally send Rachel a text.

**I know about Kurt's Breadstix thing. We go 2 that then hit Puck's party?**

It only took her a second to respond.

**I don't know. Are you going to drink?**

I rolled my eyes. Of course Berry doesn't drink.

**Yea. So r u. I wanna c u drunk.**

There wasn't a response for a long time. I was afraid she'd wanna talk about it face-to-face or something and lecture me on the dangers of drinking, but I finally got a reply.

**Santana, while I understand that people our age often get together at parties to get drunk and have sex, I don't think that's really my scene.**

I shook my head. I thought about dropping it and either ditching Rachel or going along with whatever she'd planned, but I really wanted to get wasted with my friends (even if they had totally ganged up on me) and I really, REALLY wanted Rachel there for reasons that I chose to ignore at the time.

**Ill make sure u dont get 2 out of hand. Be. Impulsive!**

Tonight was going to be so lame if she didn't wanna go. I knew that she'd wanna see some musical or stage play or something, and yes, I did have a secret love of a lot of that stuff, but I wasn't ready for her to know that, and I really was in the mood for a party. When my phone buzzed one last time, I looked at my phone and smiled at the message.

**Okay, but you can't get too drunk. You have to watch me, seeing as I have no idea what kind of drunk I am.**

I smiled. I was okay with that compromise, especially since I'd become something of a weepy drunk lately. Besides, I was pretty sure seeing Rachel Berry get drunk off her ass was going to be entertaining enough to keep my attention. On top of all that, I was getting Breadstix.

My day was seriously looking up.


	8. VDay Part 2: Stupid Finn and Breadstix

A/N: Okay, so my computer crapped out on me and it's been in the shop for quite a while. Anways, I'm already working on the next update, so it shouldn't be as long a wait. Enjoy and review :)

* * *

Stupid Finn had to ruin my day yet again.

Lunch time came around, and I'd been on my way to stare at the food that Sue Sylvester wouldn't let us eat, when I saw Finn at his kissing booth. Surprisingly, he actually had a rather long line of girls waiting to kiss him. I couldn't believe how dumb the girls at this school could be. Seriously, the guy won one championship (and it's not like he was the only one on the field), and suddenly, every girl in school wanted him. Sick.

I tried to let it go; I really didn't wanna be in the drama that was Finn and Rachel anymore, but he'd pissed me off this morning. I had every right to tell him off. I shoved my way to the front of the line and yanked away the girl currently trying to swallow Finn whole.

"Hey!" the girl yelled. "You want your turn, you have to wait like the rest of us!"

I glared at her. "Oh please. Like I wanna kiss this giant toddler." I turned to Finn. "I know what this is all about."

Finn rolled his eyes. "What're you even talking about?"

"Don't play dumb. It's redundant." I leaned in closer to him. "I know this is about trying to get Rachel to kiss you so she'll be all over you again."

"So what if I am? You said you weren't gonna get in the way anymore. This isn't any of your business. You're just trying to ruin our relationship because you're bored or whatever."

"Look, I'm gonna lay this out really simple for you," I said. "You're not good enough for her. You're pretty much the worst boyfriend ever, and that's saying something coming from me, because I dated Puck."

"You don't even know her," he spat out.

"Yeah I do. We hang out, like, all the time." I had to bite my cheek from laughing at Finn's face. He looked furious, and just a little constipated.

He looked over my shoulder at the line of girls. "Hey, I'll be back in a few minutes, girls."

I heard a groan and a few people calling me every bad thing under the sun. I'd have to remember to make them pay later, but for the moment, Finn stormed out of the booth and motioned for me to follow him.

"I know what you're doing," he said. "You're trying to get a new Brittany."

"Um...I already have a Brittany," I said, completely lost on what the hell he was saying.

"Yeah, but I know you and Brittany were hooking up before she started dating Artie, and Puck wants Lauren now, so you want a new fuck buddy. You think you can get Rachel to do that, but she won't. She cares about me too much."

"You do realize that we've already slept together," I said. "It wouldn't exactly be new territory."

"I don't believe that actually happened," he said. "I think she got you to go along with that story because she wanted to hurt me, and you just like tearing people down."

"Yeah, you mentioned that this morning," I said. I wanted to tell him that I'd been sleeping with Rachel for months now, but I didn't exactly feel like kissing and telling, and I still wasn't sure if Rachel wanted him to know that. "Look, just back off Rachel. She doesn't want you."

"Maybe you should let her speak for herself," he said.

"She has. Several times. She's been trying to get you to leave her alone for a while, okay?"

"Why do you care so much?" he asked.

"Because she's my friend," I said, and I winced a little on the inside. I'd just called Rachel Berry, the girl that three months before I couldn't stand, my friend. "I'm trying to keep her away from a sleaze like you." I turned around to walk away, and, of course (because my life was like a fucking TV show sometimes), Rachel was standing there.

"Hey, Rach," Finn said. I didn't like it when he called her that. "Can you tell Santana to stay out of our relationship?"

Rachel just rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't know what the two of you were talking about, but one, we don't have a relationship, and two, I was just looking for Santana."

"What?" he asked. "Why?"

"Vocal lessons," she said. When Finn looked like he was gonna ask more questions, Rachel grabbed my arm and pulled me away. When we were out of his earshot, she let my arm go.

"I know you probably don't want me touching you in front of the masses, but it was the only way I could think of getting you out of that conversation."

I laughed a little. "I think I was handling myself just fine, thanks."

"I know, but I'm exhausted with seeing you two fight about me, although I do appreciate you defending my honor like that. Besides, I wanted to talk to you."

"He's really becoming a pain in the ass," I said.

"Yes, well, he doesn't know what to do when he isn't the center of everyone's world, especially mine," she said, then paused for a second, a slow smile creeping up on her face.

"Alright, what's that about?" I asked, not trusting that smile for a second.

"So...we're friends?"

I groaned. "Exactly how much of that conversation did you hear?"

"Well, I came up sometime around when you were telling Finn that he wasn't good enough for me," she said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"And you decided to let us fight for a little while before you jumped in?" I asked.

She blushed a little. "Well...I intended on immediately stopping the argument when I heard it, but then I heard you say that to him, and I couldn't help but be a little bit curious as to where this particular fight would lead."

"So, basically, you just wanted to hear me compliment you," I said. When she looked at the ground, I laughed a little. "God, Berry, you're so into yourself."

Her head snapped back up. "I'll have you know that while I do sometimes get wrapped up in myself, it isn't anymore than the average teenager. I was just a little thrown because it isn't often that people compliment me."

The smile dropped off of my face. That was my fault. Quinn, me, and the rest of the Cheerios and football players had basically made it social suicide for anyone to even go near Rachel without a slushie in hand.

"Whatever, Berry," I said. "You know as much as I do that the people in this school are too lame to know who's hot and who's not."

"Is this your way of telling me I'm hot?" she asked.

"What exactly did you wanna talk about?" I asked her, hoping that I didn't have to answer that question. Although, at this point, I was pretty sure she knew I though she was hot.

"Oh...yeah...well...about the party-"

"You're not backing out, are you?" I asked. When Rachel looked at the ground, I had my answer. "Oh, come on!"

"Look, Santana, I just don't know if I'm the party type. Sure, I'm flattered that I've even been invited to this party, although I'm sure it has a lot to do with our arrangement, but I don't know if I'm the party type."

"Everyone's the party type with enough alcohol," I said.

"That's another thing," she said. "I don't think I should drink. As I said before, I've never gotten drunk, and I'm not sure it's an experience I want to have right now. I feel like I should wait until I'm legal to partake in-"

"Shut up, Berry," I said. She closed her mouth and looked at me. "Okay, I already told you that I wasn't gonna get smashed so I could make sure that you didn't make a fool out of yourself."

"Well, to be honest, I don't exactly trust you to keep that promise," she said. "I mean, you said we're friends now, which is nice, but I have a feeling that won't stop you from getting me to do something embarrassing during a game of truth-or-dare, filming it, and posting it on YouTube."

"Berry, that's...probably true, but I'll keep you from getting into any serious trouble."

"Santana, if you were to film and post a video of me, it could ruin my future career!" It was amazing to me how fast this girl could go into full-on panic mode. "Besides, I don't know how much I trust the boys in the club. Finn's still trying to get me back, and although Noah seems quite smitten with Lauren, that may change once he's had a few drinks. He doesn't have the best track record with fidelity...or not getting drunk girls pregnant."

"Calm down," I said. "If I promise that nothing will get online and no one will get preggers, will you come?"

She still seemed unsure. "You know...you could go without me. It's not like you're obligated to spend the day with me or anything."

"Yeah, but I promised. We're...friends, or whatever, so I want you at this party." She perked up a little, but she still wasn't totally convinced. I took a deep breath and readied myself. There was only one thing I could think of that Rachel couldn't turn down. "If you go, I'll actually let you give me vocal lessons."

She looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. "Are you serious?" she said. "I've been trying to get the entire club to get lessons from me for ages. If you did it, maybe the others would see the positive effects and also volunteer."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's not get carried away." I laughed a little when she glared at me. "So are you in?"

She nodded. "But if anything goes wrong, I'm holding you personally responsible."

"Deal," I said. "So I've got Cheerios after school, so I figure I'll pick you up around 6:30."

"Sounds like a plan," she said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the choir room."

"Of course you are," I said under my breath. "Okay, I'll see you later."

Rachel ran off with a wave. The rest of the school day was uneventful. Everyone was on too much of a sugar high and too focused on their plans for the night to pay any attention to what the teachers were trying to tell us. Cheerios practice went surprisingly smoothly, probably because everyone wanted to get out of there, and the fastest way to get out was to keep Sylvester happy (or as close to happy as she was capable). Besides, where a sugar rush was bad in class, it was great in Cheerios.

I had to rush to make sure I was ready in time to pick up Rachel. I had a feeling that she'd talk my ear off for hours if I was late, and I wasn't in the mood for that. I ended up being about ten minutes early. I walked up to the door and knocked. David answered the door.

"Oh, hello, Santana!" He grabbed me into a hug. I was so shocked I didn't even hug back, but he didn't really seem to care. "Rachel said you'd be coming over shortly."

"Hey, David," I said. I looked over his shoulder and saw a black guy looking at us. "I assume you're the other Mr. Berry," I said to him.

He smiled. "I would've introduced myself, but David sort of threw himself into your arms." He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. "You can call me Michael."

"It's nice to meet you," I said with the sweetest smile I could muster.

"Rachel's been talking about you non-stop for weeks now, so it's nice to be able to put a face with the name," he said. "I'm just glad that she's managed to make friends."

"Yeah, I was really scared for a while that the only friend she'd make was that boy," David said. I smiled knowing he was talking about Finn. "It's probably not very mature of me to take such a disliking to a child, but he just rubbed me the wrong way."

"Rachel tells us you aren't too fond of him, either."

"Yeah, well, he's an ass," I said a little harsher than I meant to. Every time Finn got brought up, I just got angry. Like, more angry than my usual constant level of angry. "Excuse my language, sirs."

"Have I mentioned that I like you?" David said with a smile.

"Honey, let her go talk to Rachel," Michael said to his husband, then he looked at me. "She's upstairs in her room getting ready."

"Thank you," I said as I walked up to her room. I knocked on her door, then let myself in. I smiled at what I saw. Rachel was looking through her closet. She had headphones in her ears, so she didn't notice I was there. I just sat on the bed and admired the view. Berry was wearing some seriously sexy black underwear with a matching lacy bra. A couple minutes went by, and I was gonna make my presence known, but she started talking to herself, so I just stayed on the bed and listened.

"I don't have anything to wear. God, she's just going to make fun of me all night. Maybe I should just dress like I always do...try to make it look like I'm not trying. No, tonight's special. I have to try to dress like a normal person. Okay..." She turned around and screamed bloody murder when she saw me sitting on her bed. I couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Santana Lopez!" she screamed, ripping her headphones out of her ears. "This isn't funny!"

"You should've seen your face!" I said between laughs. Seriously, I could barely breathe. "You're fucking priceless, Berry."`

"Gee, Santana. Thanks a lot," she said, grabbing a robe and throwing it on. That sobered me up a little.

"Whoa, no need to cover up," I said, walking towards her. "It's not like it's anything I haven't seen before." I tried to peel it off of her, but she backed away.

"We're already running late, and if you start undressing me, we'll be even later," she said. "Exactly how long were you sitting there?"

I laughed. "Long enough to know that you talk to yourself like a crazy person."

"I'll have you know that speaking thoughts out loud is something that a lot of people do when they're alone. At least, when they think they're alone."

I just rolled my eyes. "Whatever, just wear a t-shirt and a skirt and let's go."

She glared at me. "I'm sorry that I tried to put a little effort into my clothing choices. Do you just throw on whatever you find first?"

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I look hot in everything. Now let's go. I wants my Breadstix."

Rachel just rolled her eyes and followed me out of her house.

"So...how is this working?" she asked me while we were driving.

"What?" I asked, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Well, I know that you said we're now friends, but I assume that you won't want people knowing that-"

"You assume right," I said. Sure, Berry was cool, but I wasn't about to commit social suicide for her or anything. I could see her face fall out of the corner of my eye, and I thought about taking it back, but she kept talking.

"So I assume that we won't be sitting together tonight," she said. "Still, I figured that we could sit near each other, considering that we're supposed to be spending the night together."

"Um...okay. I don't know why you needed to plan this out," I said.

"Well...I wasn't sure how you felt about...seating arrangements and such."

I hated it when she got like this. It's like she was trying to ask me something without asking me. It drove me crazy.

"Berry, just say what you wanna say," I snapped at her.

"Fine," she snapped back. "I was sort of hoping you'd want to sit with me and my friends, considering that you enjoy spending time with me, no matter how much you deny it, but I should've known that you'd be too concerned with your stupid reputation."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, I'm sick of having this fight with you. You know we're friends. Telling everybody else doesn't do anything but embarrass me."

"Well, I'm glad to know I'm just a huge embarrassment for you."

"Look, if you're gonna be like this all night, I don't even wanna hang out with you."

"And how is that different than what we're doing now?" She asked.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "You know what I mean."

She let out a humorless laugh. "Of course, you're talking about sex. That's all we are to you."

She sounded like I'd punched her in the gut...and I kind of felt the same. We pulled up to the restaurant, and I turned to her.

"Berry, listen-"

"No, Santana. Let's just go in," she said. Before I could stop her, she got out of the car, slammed her door shut, and walked to the restaurant without me.

"Fuck," I said under my breath. I felt like shit. I hadn't meant to piss her off like that, but she...something about her knocked me off balance. Even though we really hadn't even had that many conversations with each other, I felt like I she was getting closer to me than anyone else (well, besides Britt), and I was really starting to, like, regret saying mean things and stuff. I could feel things getting complicated between us, and that's not what this was supposed to be.

I walked into the restaurant and sat at a table next to where Rachel was sitting. Yeah, there was a barrier between us, but we could still see each other. I kept trying to catch her eye, but she was caught up in a conversation with the Asians and Mercedes, and I was pretty sure she was purposely trying to ignore me. A little while later, Brittany came up to our table with Artie.

"Hey, San!" she said, sitting down next to me. She looked over at Rachel's table, and I knew she was gonna start a line of questioning. "Why aren't you sitting with Rachel?"

"Why would she be sitting with Rachel?" Artie asked.

"Not now, Britt," I said, a little impressed that she hadn't spilled the beans to Artie yet.

"Did you do something again?" she asked. When I didn't say anything, she smacked my arm.

"Ow!" I yelled. "What the hell, Britt?"

"You're doing the same dumb stuff to Rachel that you used to do to me," she said.

"You can't compare you and me to Rachel and me," I said. "It's totally different."

"Uh, yeah, because you actually like her like that," she said.

"Um, am I missing something?" Artie said, confused.

We ignored him. "I don't have a crush on Berry," I said. "Just because we're sleeping together doesn't mean that we're, like, in love."

"Well, you may not be in love yet, but you're getting there-"

"Okay, hold on," Artie cut Brittany off. "Since when are Rachel and Santana together?"

"We're not together," I said. "And I suggest you don't mention anything about what you just heard, or you might get wheeled off a cliff, understand?"

"But...I...you...my lips are sealed," he finally said, and I smirked.

"Okay, can you stop threatening my boyfriend and just admit that you like Rachel?" Brittany said.

I shook my head. "I'm not doing that," I said. Before Brittany could say anything, Kurt started his little speech. I'd never been happier to hear him speak in my life.

The performance was alright (although the main Dalton dweeb had singled me out at one point. Whatever, I had dozens of people falling all over themselves to be with me. Who needs love when you can have a legion of meaningless hook-ups?), and I ate my weight in bread sticks. I should've been feeling on top of the world, but all I could think about was Rachel and her stupid feelings. When things wrapped up, I walked over to her.

"Hey, you ready to go to Puck's?" I asked.

"Actually, someone else volunteered to give me a ride," she said. Just before I could ask her who, Finn, in all his Neanderthal glory, walked over and slung his arm over her.

"Hey," he said to her. "You ready to go?"

I couldn't believe she was pulling this shit.

"Hey, Rach," I said. "I need to talk to you real fast." When Finn didn't leave, I grunted. "Alone."

"I don't think she wants to talk to you," he said.

"I think she can speak for herself," I spat back at him. "She's my friend."

"Oh, so now I'm your friend?" Rachel cut in. Yeah, I deserved it, but it didn't mean I liked it.

"Seriously, this'll take two seconds," I said to her. Finally, she huffed, told Finn she'd be back in a minute, and followed me out.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Since when are you talking to Finnessa again?" I asked. "Last I checked, you were trying to get him to back off."

"Yeah, well, he's not embarrassed to be seen in public with me, and he actually cares about my feelings," she said.

"Oh, please. Yeah, you're mad at me, but let's not rewrite history. He lied to you about sleeping with someone else."

"You bring that up a lot, but you always leave out the part where that someone else is you." I really hated when Rachel got mad at me because it got me equal parts pissed off and turned on, and I couldn't think when I got like that.

"Is that what this is about?" I asked. "At least I told you!"

"It's not about that," she said. "It's about the fact that the only time you ever call me Rach is when you're feeling territorial around Finn. It's about the fact that you never admit we're friends to anyone but Finn to try to get him to back off. It's about the fact that you use me to get a rise out of Finn."

"That's not what's going on!" I yelled...although, she'd made a few valid points.

"Then prove it!" She yelled. "Tell everyone we're friends! It's not like I'm asking for your fucking hand in marriage!" I was a little thrown by her swearing without orgasms being involved, so I didn't even get a chance to answer. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'll see you at the party, San." She walked off. I wanted to hit someone. Instead, I settled on getting in my car and speeding all the way to Puck's, hitting my steering wheel a few times on the way.


	9. VDay Part 3: The Party

I was the first one to Puck's house besides Lauren. I pounded on the door until he let me in.

"Whoa," he said. "You look pissed off."

"Just get me a drink," I said. He poured me a shot, and I threw it back. I'd promised myself that I wasn't gonna get shit-faced at this party (seriously...weepy drunk is no fun), but I needed a drink to calm down. Rachel had gotten on my last fucking nerve. Yeah, she had a point. She was just asking to be my friend, but admitting that I liked her as a friend to other people might somehow lead to me telling people that we're sleeping together, which might make me have to deal with...all my other issues. Not happening.

God, why had I agreed to this whole thing with Berry again?

"What's a matter?" Lauren said to me. "Missing my hot piece of man meat?"

I glared at her. Why the fuck did this bitch have to constantly press my buttons? She was officially on my list. "Okay, I'm gonna level with you. I'm from a little place called Lima Heights Adjacent, as in, the wrong side of the tracks, and-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Puck said, stepping between the two of us. "When you start going into your Lima Heights speech, it usually leads to a fight, and while I'm usually up for girl-on-girl violence, and you usually win, I wanna remind you that Lauren is a wrestler. Like, a nationally ranked wrestler who's more that twice your size, and I'm afraid of you getting broken in half."

"Who needs wrestling when you have street cred on your side?" I said, already feeling the alcohol a little. Surprisingly, I didn't hold my liquor all that well.

"Seriously, you and Lauren are my two favorite girls. Don't make me choose." I could see how much this was stressing Puck out, so I calmed down.

"Your man just saved you from a serious beat-down," I said.

"Yeah, that's right, he's **my **man," she said. I lunged at her, but Puck caught me around my waist.

"Lauren!" he yelled. "Seriously!"

We glared at each other for a few minutes before I sat on one of Puck's couches. He said a few things to Lauren before he sat down next to me.

"Okay, so what's up with you?" he asked.

"Aren't you gonna get in trouble for blowing her off for me?" I asked. "Seeing as you're so whipped."

"She gets that we're friends." He handed me a beer from a cooler he had next to his couch.

"She doesn't act like it." I opened the beer and downed about half of it.

"Okay, you only drink like this when something's wrong," he said. "Just tell me. Is it about the guy you've been ditching me for?"

I sighed. "Just leave me alone, Puckerman. I'm not in a sharing mood."

He shrugged. "Fine, but I'm gonna find out. Just don't get too carried away tonight. You're no fun drunk. Then again, neither is Lauren."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, she's sort of an angry drunk, as you saw just a minute ago."

"She's already drunk?" I asked.

"Yeah, we left Breadstix right after Kurt's thing was over. I had to set things up here."

"There really wasn't much to set up," I said.

"Yeah, well, that's why we broke out the drinks early." He gave me his best charming smile (even if it usually came off sort of sleazy). "Anyways, I gotta go find my girl before she comes over here and starts shit again. You gonna be okay?"

These were the moments I liked Puck. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He leaned in a little, and I held my hand up. "I don't need a hug. I'm seriously fine."

He just shrugged. "Suit yourself." He got off the couch and went to find Lauren. I just sat there, wondering if I should text Rachel and apologize or something, but I decided not to, because she was the one that was trying to make me jealous with stupid Finn Hudson. She should be apologizing to me for being so stupid. I wasn't gonna start getting all in touch with my feelings like Puck was with Lauren and Britt was with Artie.

Speaking of Brittany and Artie, they were the next to arrive at the party, and I groaned. I knew Brittany would see me alone and start harassing me, and I didn't wanna deal with that.

"Hey, San!" she said in that way she always did. I don't know how I'd managed to make a best friend that was perky, like, all the time. It seemed unnatural.

"Hey, Britt," I grumbled out. "Artie." He just gave a half-hearted wave.

"Have you talked to Rachel yet?" she asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"Uh...no, not yet. She was still mad at me, so I gave her some space, and I'm gonna talk to her when she gets here." Not entirely untrue...but definitely not true, either.

"Oh, okay," Brittany said, finally being a little less observant. "Well, just make sure you don't drink too much. You know how you get."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "And in the same respect, I encourage you to drink as much as you want, because I know how you get." I shot her a smile and a wink, and she laughed.

"How do you get when you're drunk?" Artie asked.

"Let's just say you're in for a show," I said, handing Brittany a beer from that cooler by the couch. Everybody that had every partied with Brittany knew she was a stripper-drunk. Hey, we may have stopped hooking up, and she may be my best friend, but she had an incredible body, and it's not like I ever let her get too carried away...and did I mention that she had an incredible body?

Everybody showed up pretty fast after that (well, everyone besides Finn and Rachel). It was weird, because about half the club (those of us that had actually been popular enough to get invited to parties) was already getting drunk while the other half was standing around, looking awkward. It wasn't until Puck started a game of beer pong that everyone started really loosening up.

Rachel and Finn came in about half an hour after everyone else. My first instinct was to run over to her and start hysterically yelling at her and asking her what took so long, but I needed to let that go. I was Santana Lopez, God dammit! I wasn't gonna let Rachel Berry throw me off my game anymore!

"Hey, Britt!" I called over the music. She stopped pushing Artie in circles and looked over at me. "Body shots!"

She squealed and immediately peeled her shirt off. Artie looked horrified for about a second, but calmed down because...well, Brittany's abs sort of have that affect on you. A little crowd gathered around me and Britt while I poured salt on her stomach. I licked it off, then took my shot, and all the boys were going crazy. Right before I leaned over to take the lime out of her mouth with mine, I looked up and saw Rachel. She kept looking between Brittany and I. I tried to finish the job, I really did, but with Rachel looking at me like a kicked puppy, I couldn't do it. I groaned, took the lime out of her mouth with my hand, then sucked the juice out of it. There was a collective groan from the group.

"What!" Puck yelled, outraged. "Rip off! You have to do another one!"

"Yeah...no I don't," I said, standing up.

"Yeah you do!" he yelled. "Every time you and Brittany do body shots, it ends with the two of you making out! It's, like, Lima party tradition!"

"Britt has a boyfriend now," I said, looking at Artie.

"I don't mind," he said, and everyone was staring at him in shock. "Hey, we're all drunk. It's not like it would mean anything. It'd just be for fun...and super hot."

"Wow, dude," Puck said. "I don't give you enough credit for being awesome."

"Yeah, well, still not doing it," I said. "So maybe you should back off a'fores I tell Zizes that you're following me around like a puppy dog instead of paying attention to her."

Puck rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if I don't see some hot girl-on-girl action by the end of this party, I'm gonna be pissed."

The party went on, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was safe to say that everyone was smashed besides Finn and Kurt, who had both decided to lay off the liquor for the night. I'd successfully stopped myself from crying several times during the night...all of my close calls had to do with me seeing Rachel drunkenly draping herself over Finn. He was, of course, eating it up.

"Hey everybody!" Rachel yelled over all the noise. "Let's play spin the bottle!"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Rach," Finn said, pulling her closer. I wanted to hurl.

"It's an awesome idea!" she practically screamed in his face. I made a mental note to make sure I never let her out of my sight if we ever went drinking with mixed company. She was quite the clingy drunk.

"Yeah! Spin the bottle!" Puck yelled. He was the resident horny drunk...surprise, surprise.

It took everyone a few minutes to sit down in the circle without falling all over each other, but we finally got the job done. Brittany was on my right, and Puck was on my left. The only problem was that Frankenteen and Rachel were sitting right across from me, so I got to watch him eye my girl the whole time.

Well...not _my_ girl...whatever, you know what I mean.

The first few turns were tension-filled. Britt had to kiss Mike (which was a little awkward because they sort of had a thing sophomore year), Tina had to kiss Artie after her kiss with Mike, and Quinn had to kiss Puck after her kiss with Artie (do I even need to explain why those were awkward?). Puck's spin did nothing to cut the tension when it landed on me.

"No way in hell is that happening," Lauren said.

"What'sa matter?" I slurred out. Yeah, I'd had way too many... "Scared Puck'll remember what he's missing?"

"Speak up again, and I'll break you like a toothpick." I jumped to my feet, and so did she.

"Bring it on, Shamu!" I yelled, and I could already feel Brittany's arms around my waist, holding me back.

"Girl fight!" Mike yelled, and Tina smacked him on the arm.

"No! No girl fight!" Puck yelled, once again standing between us. "Look, it's just a stupid kiss for a stupid game. The faster we do it, the faster it'll be over."

Lauren growled at me, and I just rolled my eyes and sat back down. A few seconds went by before everyone calmed down again.

"Alright, let's do this," I said, grabbing Puck and pulling him in for a kiss. He'd never been a very good kisser, so I wasn't thrilled, but a thought occurred to me a second before our lips met. I knew that Berry was a little threatened by Puck and Britt-Britt. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. I kissed him with everything I had. I opened my eyes a little bit to catch a look at Rachel out of the corner of my eye. She looked beyond pissed, and I laughed on the inside.

Finally, Puck pulled away a little with a smirk on his face. I glanced over at Rachel again, and she was glaring at him like she was trying to set him on fire with her mind. Lauren looked less that impressed, too, but I didn't really care about her.

"Alright, my spin," I said. The bottle spun around a few times, and for a second, I actually thought it was gonna land on Rachel, which would work out perfectly for me. I'd get to kiss Rachel in front of our friends without them knowing what was going on, and Rachel would give up on this whole making me jealous thing once we started kissing. No one could resist my kisses if I didn't want them to.

Of course, my life sucked, and it landed on Finn instead.

"No way!" I yelled out.

"Not happening!" Finn said at the same time. Everyone in the room was going crazy. The club knew that we'd had tension between us since the Finchel (gag me) break-up, but they assumed it was because of what had happened between us sophomore year. That's why Rachel got more that one confused look when she burst out laughing.

"You have to, Santana," she said, clutching her side. "It's the rules!"

"Yeah," Quinn chimed in. "We've all had to kiss people we didn't want to."

"Oh, fuck off, preggers. We all know you didn't mind sucking face with Puck." I really hated Quinn...and Rachel...and stupid Finn...and the fucking universe.

"Come on, Santana, it's either you do it, or you spend an hour naked," Artie said.

"I think I'll take option number two," I said, starting to take off my shirt.

"Wait, I don't wanna get naked!" Finn yelled, stopping me. I'd forgotten that he'd have to get naked, too. I couldn't handle seeing that, so I sucked it up.

"Fine," I said. "How long?"

"Five second," Puck said. "With tongue."

I almost threw up all over him, but I held it back and crawled over to Finn. We stared at each other for a few seconds before I leaned forward and kissed him.

"None of this counts until we see some tongue!" I heard Puck call out. I rolled my eyes and shoved my tongue into Finn's mouth. I'd actually forgotten what a bad kisser he was. It was like making out with a Golden Retriever. It was the longest five seconds of my life, but it finally ended. I wiped my mouth and took another shot when I was done.

"See? Was that so bad?" Rachel asked with a smirk. I wanted to kiss that stupid smile off her face.

Smack...I meant smack that stupid look off her face.

Anyways, it was Finn's turn, and I just prayed that it wouldn't land on me. I didn't think I could take making out with him again without forfeiting the contents of my stomach. When the bottle landed on Rachel, I just about flipped my shit.

"What the fuck!" I yelled out. I looked at the ceiling. "Why do you hate me, God?"

When I looked back down, about half of the group looked confused as hell. Brittany and Artie were looking at me sympathetically, Rachel was looking at me, still smirking, and Finn looked about the same as Rachel, except his was a little cockier.

Rachel turned to Finn. "You get your kiss, lover boy," she said before putting her hands on his cheeks and crushing her lips to his. A few seconds into it, she moaned. I knew she was faking it. I could tell a real Rachel moan from a fake one, but it still bothered me. Suddenly, she was in his lap, and he had his hands on her ass.

I was seeing red. Tonight was supposed to be me and Rachel hanging out and being alone together, and now Hudson had his hands on her ass...had his lips on her lips

"That's fucking it!" I yelled. I got to my feet and pulled Rachel away from Finn. I knew I was crying. I'd started crying at some point during the kiss, but I didn't give a flying fuck at the moment.

"Jesus," Sam said. "Just let them kiss."

"Yeah," Mercedes said. "It's not like they weren't gonna get back together anyways."

I shook my head. "No! They can't get back together! He's too tall, and stupid, and he doesn't treat her right!" I knew I was saying too much, but I was already all the way in drunk-mode, so there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop myself. Besides, it's not like anyone was gonna remember any of this in the morning. "And he's bad in bed! Like, really bad. I mean, I've slept with, like, everybody, and he's, like, the worst! And...and...and he's just so fucking tall!" I looked at Rachel. "You don't even like him anymore!"

"How do you know?" she shot back at me. "You don't know how I feel! You don't even care!"

"I care!" I yelled at her.

"I feel like I'm missing something," I heard Lauren ask Puck.

"Me too, but I think I'm starting to put the pieces together," he answered. I'm sure he had a grin on his face.

"You don't act like you care," Rachel said to me. I was close to my breaking point. I wanted to win this fight. Really, I wanted to win every fight with Rachel, but the more I thought about this one, the less I saw an outcome where I'd win. It was hard for me to admit (because I never did before), but...she was right. The only way I could win this one was by losing.

"Fine, you want me to do this?" I turned away from her and faced everyone else. "Berry and I are friends. I think she's super cool and we hang out, like, all the time. She's my super best friend." I saw Britt's face fall. "You are too, Brittany." She smiled, so I turned back to Rachel. Again, she was smirking at me. "Satisfied?"

"It'll do for now," she said.

"Wait, I'm confused," Sam said. "Since when are Santana and Rachel friends?"

"And why is Santana crying?" Mercedes asked.

"And what did that have to do with Finn and Rachel kissing?" Mike threw in.

"I have a theory," Puck said.

I wiped the tears off of my face. "Everybody shut the fuck up and get back to dancing!" Brittany was more than happy to oblige. She jumped up on a table and immediately all of the guys except for Finn were suddenly distracted.

"Aw, Sanny-Bear. You're just a big softie," Rachel said as she pulled me into a hug. "You know...you're, like, really soft. Like a pillow. Are you a pillow?"

Talking to Berry drunk was a lot like talking to Brittany sober.

"What the hell, Rachel?" Finn said, walking up to us. "Are you ditching me?"

"Lay off," I said, still holding onto Rachel who now had her face in my neck. "She's obviously drunk off her ass."

"Yeah, that's exactly why I should be watching her," he said. "I shouldn't leave her with you of all people. You can't be trusted."

"I'm watching her just fine, thanks."

"You're drunk, too, Santana," he snapped out. "And I know you. You just wanna get her alone so you can take advantage of her."

"I wouldn't mind that so much, actually," Rachel said, and I couldn't hold in my laughter.

"See? She doesn't even know what she's saying!" Finn stepped closer to me. "Look, Santana, you use everyone you know. If you really care about Rachel, you won't do the same with her."

I rolled my eyes. "You done, Hudson? I'd like to get my dance on."

"Dancing?" Rachel said, looking at me. "We should dance together!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Finn before either one of us could get in another word.

The next few hours were sort of a blur. I was vaguely aware of the fact that Puck was trying to get my attention, but he kept getting dragged away by a very angry Lauren. Finn was sitting in the corner, glaring at Rachel and me. In fact, everyone was kind of throwing us weird looks. That may have had to do with the fact that Rachel was grinding on me so hard that we might as well have been having sex on Puck's makeshift dance floor.

Again, I knew that no one was gonna remember any of the details of the night clearly, so I wasn't too worried about it. Even if I had been worried, I was way too drunk and WAY too turned on to even think about pushing her away from me. Seriously, all the years of dance lessons had really payed off in a big way.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of teasing, Rachel pulled me to the side so I could hear her over everything.

"I'm done dancing now," she said to me. "I think we could be doing other things to work up a sweat right now."

The smile on my face after that little comment probably looked incredibly stupid, but I didn't care. I was getting some. I told Rachel to wait where she was while I found Puck.

"Douche bag!" I yelled over the music. I had to laugh a little when Puck immediately looked over at me. "I'm taking your room tonight. Too drunk to drive, and I don't think Finn's gonna wanna drive me home."

Puck laughed a little. "I'm guessing your new best friend will be joining you?"

"Well, yeah. She needs sleep, too."

"Yeah, I'm sure the two of you are gonna get a lot of sleep tonight," he said with a wink. "You owe me a favor after this one, Lopez."

"Deal," I said. I probably shouldn't have agreed to that. Last time I'd owed Puck a favor, I'd ended up in the back of a police car, drunk off my ass, and only in my underwear.

"Puckerman!" I heard a voice call over the crowd. "Here! Now!"

"That's my lady," he said. I looked on disgusted as Puck ran to Lauren like a lapdog. I didn't think I'd ever get used to that. Just as I was about to gag at the sight of the two of them dancing, I felt a pair of arms come around my waist.

"Are you gonna stand there staring at Puck all night, or are you gonna get up on this?" Rachel husked into my ear. The pair of us were up the stairs and in Puck's room before you could blink. I immediately pushed her down on the bed and latched onto her neck with my lips. She gasped and I grinned against her skin. I pulled away and took off my shirt. She did the same, and I went back to her neck. I wasn't interested in any build-up or teasing. I just wanted to touch her. I _needed_ to touch her. From the way she was pushing herself against my thigh, I knew she felt the same way.

When I felt her pulling at my jeans, I got off the bed and tried to pull them off, but I ended up stumbling and falling over in the process, which sent Rachel into hysterical laughter.

"That's not funny, Berry!" I yelled at her.

"Ah, ah, ah," she said, waving her finger back and forth. "We're in the bedroom now, Santana. No more Berry. Say you're sorry."

I stood back up and shot her a glare as I finally pulled off my jeans. "Okay, no. I'll call you Rachel from now on, but I'm not apologizing, and you're not withholding."

She just giggled and took off her bra. Seriously, you'd think because they're so small that they wouldn't have as much power over me...but damn, they were just so perfect.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Rachel," I said as I pushed her back down on the bed and started playing with her nipples. She groaned and tried to speak, but I either was too drunk and horny to understand, or she was so drunk and horny that she wasn't making any sense. Or both. I went on like this for a few more minutes, fondling her chest and kissing her until I couldn't breathe. I let one of my hands drift lower, and her breath hitched. Right as I got under her skirt to her inner thigh, an annoying voice popped up int my head.

_I shouldn't leave her with you of all people. You can't be trusted._

I couldn't believe that I was hearing Finn Hudson's voice in my head.

Suddenly, everything felt different. I started noticing that I couldn't quite get my vision to focus. I pulled away from Rachel and looked at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and clouded over from all the alcohol she'd drunk. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I didn't wanna be thinking like that. I dove back into our kiss, and my hand went back to tracing circles on her inner thigh. Still, I couldn't put out of my mind that our kisses were a lot sloppier than they usually were.

_You just wanna get her alone so you can take advantage of her._

I pulled back again, and Rachel let out an aggravated grunt.

"Why do you keep stopping?" she asked. I couldn't ignore the way that she slurred her words out. This didn't feel quite right. I couldn't help but feel like everything was so fucked up. I just started kissing her neck, hoping her moans would drown out the voices in my head.

_You use everyone you know. If you really care about Rachel, you won't do the same with her._

"Shut the fuck up, Finn!" I yelled out, and Rachel looked at me confused.

"Okay...what?" she mumbled out. "Did you just yell at Finn?" I didn't say anything. "I don't understand what's happening."

I looked at Rachel. I again found myself in a situation where no matter what I did, I lost. Half of me thought I was being stupid. I mean, it's not like we hadn't slept together sober. It's not like she didn't want it. Hell, she was practically begging for it. In fact, she was the one that had dragged me off the dance floor! Still, she was drunk, and despite the fact that I'd promised to stay sober-ish to keep an eye on her, I was drunk, too. I couldn't do this. When I pulled my hand out of her skirt and got off the bed, she sat up in a hurry.

"Wait!" she yelled. "Weren't we about to...I mean, we were gonna-"

"I know." I ran my hands through my hair before putting my clothes back on and tossing her bra and shirt to her. "I just...don't want to anymore."

Her face immediately dropped. "Did I do something wrong?" I hated the waver that I heard in her voice."

"No that's not what I meant!" I said, throwing my shirt over my head and sitting next to her on the bed. "It's just...we can't...I can't...ugh!" I couldn't think clearly enough to get out what I wanted to say. When I saw a tear roll down her cheek, I wiped it away and started talking again. "I wanted to. I still do, but we're both really drunk, and I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Is that all?" Rachel said with a little giggle. "Come on, we both knew this is where we were gonna end up at the end of the night, drunk or sober. I don't mind."

"I know you don't, but I don't know if you will in the morning. I mean, we sort of got into a huge fight earlier. Who's to say you won't be pissed off about that once your sober?"

She rolled her eyes at me. "You told everybody that we're friends. That's all I wanted." She pushed me down on the bed and started kissing my neck.

"Rachel, you're making this really hard on me," I groaned out.

"Yeah, well, stop saying no," she said, running a hand under my shirt. I wanted to let go, but Finn's stupid voice wasn't leaving my head. I pushed her away and sat back up.

"Look, we have the whole weekend. If you still want me tomorrow, I'm all for it. Although, I'm not sure we'll be up to it." I cringed thinking about the hangover that I was sure to have the next day...and probably for a few days after that. "For now, let's just sleep, okay?" She pouted, and it almost broke my resolve, but I held out just long enough to win this one.

"Okay," she said, crawling under the covers. "I'm not happy about it, though."

"Trust me, no one is more upset by this than me." I pulled back the covers and laid next to her. I stared at the ceiling for about fifteen minutes.

"San?" Rachel said, and I faced her. "Will you hold me? I wanna cuddle, and you owe me."

I laughed a little bit. "Sure," I said, and I wrapped my arms around her.

"San?" she said again, and I just squeezed a little tighter so she knew I was listening. "I know we fought, but...this was still the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. Thank you."

I smiled. "Happy Valentine's Day, Rach." She sighed contentedly, and my smile got even bigger. Rachel felt surprisingly good in my arms. I couldn't help but think that I wouldn't mind going to bed like this every night.

_Whatever, I can just blame thoughts like that on the alcohol _I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

A/N: I know a lot of you were really hoping for something a lot smuttier, but I thought this was a good development for our dear Santana. Trust me, there will be more smutty goodness in the future. In fact, if you really want it, just tell me in the reviews and I can put some in the next chapter.


	10. Movie Marathon and Shower Sex

A/N: I suck at updating. I'm sorry. I'll try to pick it up a little. Also, not much happens in this chapter, so I'm sorry about that, too. Please continue to R&R, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I felt like someone was hitting me in the head with a hammer over and over again. I tried to open my eyes, but the light coming in from the window was blinding, so I snapped them back shut.

"Fuck," I grumbled out.

"Oh good," a voice said, making me jump. "You're awake." It was Rachel. I cracked an eye open. She was doing jumping jacks next to the bed. "There's some aspirin and water on the nightstand right next to you."

I felt around for the pills, still refusing to open my eyes fully. After nearly knocking the water over, I finally opened them just enough to grab the aspirin and pop them in my mouth. I downed the water right after that.

"Thanks," I rasped out, wishing that the pounding would go away. "How are you not dying right now? You don't even drink."

"Yes, well, I believe that I was greatly helped by the fact that I made sure that I had an adequate amount of food and water before consuming any alcohol last night." She started doing sit-ups. "Besides, no matter how badly I'm feeling, I still need to stick to my morning exercise routine. Of course, Noah doesn't have an elliptical, and I started a little bit later today because someone was holding onto me rather tightly, so I'm not exactly doing my morning ritual, but I'm making do with what I have."

I couldn't believe her. I mean, I was on the Cheerios, and I never had this much energy in the morning, especially when I'd drank my weight in booze the night before. I also couldn't believe that I'd kept cuddling her in my sleep, but I decided to not dwell on that.

"Where did you get those sweats?" I asked.

"They were in Noah's mother's room. I assume they're hers. I couldn't move around in that skirt."

I thought about how Rachel had been dancing up on me the night before and how she really hadn't had a problem moving in that skirt then. That just reminded me what had happened the night before...or rather, what hadn't happened...and I felt myself getting turned on all over again.

"Do you remember anything about last night?" I asked. I may get every other hangover symptom, but memory loss didn't really happen to me. I sort of hoped Rachel didn't remember anything. I'd been a complete softy with her.

She stopped exercising and came over to sit on the bed next to me. "I remember moments. I remember you doing a body shot off of Brittany and making out with Puckerman."

"Were you jealous?" I said, smirking a little.

"I also remember you telling everyone we were friends after me kissing Finn." The smile fell from my face. "Were you jealous?"

"What else do you remember?" I asked, avoiding the question. She just giggled a little.

"I remember...um...was there dancing?" she asked, and I nodded. "Was it...was it sort of inappropriate?" I nodded again, this time with a laugh. "Did...did we have sex?" I shook my head. "Why not?"

I went to tell her the truth, but I decided against it. She didn't need anymore ammo to use against me in the future. "You sort of passed out before we had the chance to."

"Oh," she said. "I don't remember that at all. I'm sorry to leave you hanging like that."

I just shrugged. "You'll just have to repay me later." I winked at her.

"So everyone knows we're friends now," she said. I nodded. "So...does that mean that we can act friendly at school? I know that your reputation is important and everything, but I'd really like to spend more time with you. I don't have many girl friends, and although I've been closer with Mercedes as of late, I sometimes feel like she's putting up with me because I've befriended Kurt, so I'd like to be able to have a girl friend at school." I raised an eyebrow at her, and her eyes went wide. "I didn't mean...I meant a friend that is a girl. I don't want you to be my girlfriend in the holding hands kind of way. Not that there's anything wrong with you or anything! I just figure you-"

"Rachel!" I yelled getting her attention. I grabbed my head from the pain that my own voice had brought on. "Just calm down. I'll be your friend at school, okay?"

She smiled. "Really? Just like that?"

"Sure. I figure if I can get you to stop dressing like you're blind and I beat anyone that tries to question my popularity, I'll just get more street cred. Besides, if I can actually make you sort of popular, something that dating Puck and Finn didn't do, I'll be considered a miracle worker." Rachel's face fell a little bit, and I hated myself for feeling bad...again. "Besides, you're not so bad to hang around."

Her smile came back to life. "Good. Great. Now, I'm going to go get something to eat. Do you want anything?"

I groaned. "Rachel, I'm pretty sure that if I eat anything right now, I'll pull a full Linda Blair all over Puck's kitchen." The thought alone almost sent me running to the bathroom. "It won't be pretty."

"Well, you need to eat something. I'll just make you some toast or something." Rachel took one of my hands into hers and started rubbing circles on the back of it with her thumb. "It might actually help settle your stomach."

Right before I was about to answer, Puck came busting through the door.

"I knew it!" he yelled, pointing at us. When Rachel and I just shot him a look, his hand dropped. "Wait...why aren't you two naked?"

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, you can leave now."

"No...but...all the stuff with spin the bottle, and the sexy dancing-"

"I think you had one too many drinks last night, Noah," Rachel said.

"But...Santana asked me to use my room, and she only does that when she's gonna hook up."

"Puck, I couldn't drive home. I just needed a place to crash, and Rachel didn't feel like dealing with Finn, so she crashed in here with me."

Puck looked like he might cry. "So you two aren't hooking up?"

"Only in your wet dreams, Puckerman," I said.

"Well, usually, my wet dreams are Rachel with Quinn, but this will definitely be entering the rotation." He started to walk towards the door, but before he left, he looked at us again. "Are you sure you're not sleeping together?"

"Give it up," I said, and he just grunted and walked out of the room. Rachel let out a sigh of relief.

"That was too close. I guess it's a good thing that nothing transpired last night. He may have caught us in a very compromising situation. Then again, I probably would've woken up in time to make sure that we were both fully dressed-"

"Wait," I said, finally absorbing something that Puck had said. "Did he just say that he thought about you and..._Quinn?_"

Rachel just shrugged her shoulders. "It's understandable. Many people think that hate-sex has a certain appeal."

"I don't care. It's just...gross and wrong," I grumbled out. "Besides, Fabray is straighter than a ruler." Rachel went to speak, but I cut her off again. "Not to say that I'm not. I just meant that Quinn's vanilla and boring."

Rachel raised an eyebrow at me. "You're straight?"

"What else would I be?" I snapped out.

"Well, I assumed since you've been with Brittany and me in bed, you'd at least classify as bisexual. Then again, it's not my place to put a label on you."

"You're right," I said. "It's not your place. Just because I sleep with girls doesn't mean I'm a lesbian."

"I...I never said you were-"

"Besides, you're sleeping with me. Does that mean that you're suddenly bi?"

"I didn't mean to upset you, Santana," she said. "I just assumed, and that was wrong of me." We sat there in silence for a minute before she spoke up again. "To answer your question, I've suspected that I was bisexual for quite a while now. Sleeping with you just confirmed it for me."

"Wait...so you actually like girls? Like girls other than me?" I asked, a little shocked.

"I've found other girls attractive, yes." I couldn't help the little twinge of jealousy.

"Thinking girls are hot doesn't make you gay, Berry."

"That's true, but there are other things that have led me to come to this conclusion. I've spent countless hours thinking about it, especially since we started...this...and I figured out that I'm bisexual. Although, at this point, I feel like I'm leaning more towards women, but I could still see myself with a man in the future. It's possible that my leanings may be due to the fact that I've only slept with women...or, well, you. My opinion may be different if I were to sleep with a man, so-"

"Can we talk about something else?" I asked. "Literally, anything else."

Rachel got up from the bed. "Well, I suggest that you spend the day at my house. I know how you hate spending time with your family, and my fathers are out together for Valentine's Day the entire weekend. We would have the house to ourselves to do as we please."

"What I please is probably going to involve a lot of laying in bed waiting for this stupid hangover to go away," I said.

"That's fine. In fact, I could help take care of you. I'll make you soup and we can watch movies, and I promise that I'll keep the musicals to a minimum."

I couldn't help but smile a little bit. "You'd do that?"

"Sure!" She was almost bouncing. "I like taking care of people, and I don't like spending time in my house alone. Besides, what are friends for?"

I nodded and threw the covers off of myself. "Alright, sounds like a plan."

"Really?" she asked with a smile.

"Okay, if we're gonna be friends, you have to stop acting shocked when I wanna hang out."

"Well, I was a little afraid you'd turn my offer down," she said, looking at the ground.

"Why would I turn down sex and soup?" I asked, and she laughed a little. We left not long after that, and true to her word, as soon as we got back to her house, she insisted that I lie in her bed while she made me something to eat and got me some water.

"It's extremely important for you to keep hydrated if you want to avoid a hangover. I'd expect you to know that, considering that you drink semi-frequently." She's been rambling on like this since we left Puck's and she'd had to drive because I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to see the road.

"Yeah, I get it. Lots of water. Thanks, Mom," I grumbled out.

"I'd like to think that your mother wouldn't give you tips on how to avoid a hangover," she said, chuckling.

"You know what I mean. Just put in a movie. Any movie." Before I could say no musicals, she had already jumped up and put in Funny Girl and laid down next to me. Even though she said she'd stay away from musicals, she followed that with RENT and Grease.

"Okay, that's enough of that," I said at the end of the movie.

"What, you don't like Grease? It's a classic, and although I don't exactly agree with the moral of the story, the music is still very good, and definitely superior to the sequel, which I plan on playing next."

I rolled my eyes. "If I have to watch one more musical, I think I might vomit."

Rachel huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine." She got up and looked through her movie collection. "What about...The Little Mermaid?"

"That's a musical, Rachel," I said.

"Okay...Aladdin?"

I glared at her. "No Disney. Just because they're animated doesn't mean that they aren't musicals." I dragged myself out of bed and looked through her movies. I was almost convinced that the only non-musical that she owned was Valentine's Day, but then I saw a movie I recognized.

"How could you not mention that you have all the Bring It On movies?"

"Oh...those. My uncle on my daddy's side gave those to me," she said. "I never even opened them."

"I love these movies," I said. "Even the stupid, cheesy straight-to-DVD ones."

"I didn't think that would be up your alley," she said.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I've been in cheer leading for how many years now, and you didn't think these would be up my alley?"

"Well...maybe I just didn't want to tell you I had them because I didn't want to watch them."

"So you were gonna torture me all weekend with musicals, but you wouldn't watch something I'd actually like?"

"You didn't seem to mind them when we were watching them," she said, not looking me in the eye. I glared at her. "Okay, that wasn't fair of me."

"You're damn straight that isn't fair," I said. "Trust me, you'll like them."

We sat down and spent the rest of the day watching the movies, only stopping so Rachel could make us meals (she refused to let me help even when I started to feel better) or for bathroom breaks. When they were finally over, I looked to Rachel, trying to see what she thought.

"I hate to admit it, but you were right. They were all good, although I thought that the one at the cheer camp was a little corny. I mean, the Shets? I did respect the West Side Story reference, though, so that was a major redeeming factor."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah, well, I'm tired, so I'm gonna take a shower and go to sleep. You have a guest room, or should I just crash on your couch."

"Come on, Santana. We slept in the same bed last night, and we've...well...slept together, so I think it's safe to say that I'm alright with you sleeping in my bed with me."

I shrugged. "Hey, didn't wanna assume. You have towels?"

She nodded. "They're in the closet in the bathroom. I'll have some clothes you can sleep in ready for when you get out."

"Thanks," I said, walking into her bathroom. I got undressed and jumped into the shower. I started thinking about the past few days I'd spent with Rachel. They'd been the most fun I'd had in a long time. Brittany was still fun, but she always had Artie with her, and he could be a total drag, and Puck was a great source for entertainment, but we usually ended up in some kind of trouble that ended our night early. It was hilarious in retrospect, but at the time, it always sucked.

Rachel was someone I could really talk to, which was weird, because I never really talked to anyone about anything, especially people I was sleeping with. I just liked spending time with her. I mean, we'd spent the entire day just watching movies, and I was pretty sure that some cuddling had happened. I hadn't even tried anything on her the whole time. It was weird...in a nice sort of way. Or nice in a weird way. I'm not really sure.

Anyway, I was just about done with my shower when I heard the bathroom door open.

"Rachel?" I called out. "You okay?" I didn't hear anything. I was just about to open the curtain and make sure she wasn't having a meltdown about something, when she slipped into the shower, naked, and pinned me to the wall.

"What the he-" She cut me off with a kiss. Not just any kiss, the kind that's all tongues and teeth and sort of leaves you breathless. I sort of felt like I should be confused, but all I could feel was the throbbing between my legs, and it was sort of pushing every thought I could've had (or had ever had in my entire life) out the window.

I felt her start tweaking my nipples, and I moaned into her mouth. She started kissing my neck, then suddenly she bit down...hard.

"Shit!" I yelled out. She just bit harder. I was almost afraid she'd draw blood, but I knew she wouldn't. She knew when to stop.

She moved her hands from my nipples to my ass and dug her nails in like she was holding on for dear life. She went back to kissing me, and I was barely coherent enough to kiss back. When one of her hands came around to my front, I knew was coming.

Or I thought I did. I expected her to touch me a little. I wasn't expecting her to push four fingers into me. My breath caught in my throat and I came almost immediately, but she didn't stop, she just started pumping her fingers in and out as fast as she could.

"Ra...Rach...oh, fuck." I kept trying to talk, but nothing coherent was coming out. Finally, Rachel sucked my bottom lip into her mouth and bit it.

"No talking," she said, still holding my lip in her teeth. It was possibly the sexiest thing she'd ever done. She let go of my lip and started sucking on my nipple. At the same time, she bit down and curled her fingers in me, and I came again. I thought she'd stop after that. I could barely stand, and I was pretty sure there were tears in my eyes, but she kept going.

"Rachel...no more. I can't..."

"What did I say about talking?" she snapped out. I closed my mouth...or I tried to, but I was panting too much. "Can you stand?" I shook my head. The only thing holding me up was the hand that was still digging into my ass. I thought she'd stop after that, but she just dropped to her knees, and put my legs over her shoulders. She sucked my clit into her mouth and kept fucking me. I could already feel my orgasm coming when she pulled away and stilled her fingers.

"No...no don't." She looked at me. "I know...no words...but please...don't stop."

"You were telling me you couldn't take anymore a minute ago," she said with a smirk. When I whined out something that was sort of like words, but not quite, she laughed a little. "I'm not stopping. You just have to say my name this time, okay?"

How the fuck did that sound so innocent? Seriously, she was on her knees, four fingers deep inside me, come on her face, and she politely asks me to say her name when I come for a third time.

Somehow, that made it hotter.

I nodded, and she went back to work. She was sucking and nipping and flicking and I was shaking, right on the edge. When she bit down on my clit (she really was a biter), I was gone. I barely managed to get out her name before everything went dark.

The next thing I knew, I was on Rachel's bed in a tank top and a pair of sweats. I looked over, and Rachel was sitting on a chair next to the bed.

"Oh! You're awake! I'm so sorry, Santana. Are you okay?" She was panicking. "I got you another glass of water."

"No more water," I said. She just nodded and started chugging the water herself. "And don't worry. I'm fine."

She emptied the glass in about five seconds. "Are you sure you're alright?"

I nodded. "In fact, I'm feeling quite well right about now."

Rachel let out a sigh of relief. "Good, because I thought I'd hurt you or something."

"No, you just fucked me into a coma." She blushed, and I laughed. "Seriously, what the hell got into you?"

She was looking at anything but me. "I remembered," she said.

"Huh? Remembered what?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

"I remembered why we didn't have sex last night." Oh...that. "That was extremely chivalrous of you, Santana."

I just shrugged. "Whatever. Drunk sex isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Rachel smiled at me. "Well, I appreciate the fact that you didn't want to take advantage of me. It was very sweet of you, and it must have been extremely frustrating."

"Stop talking before I regret hanging out with you," I groaned out.

"You know, the more I spend time with you, the less I think you mean the insults you're constantly throwing at me. I might even go as far as saying you care about me."

"Let's not get carried away," I said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep." I held up the blanket so she could get in bed with me. She slipped in and immediately snuggled up to me. "What're you doing?"

"Oh, come on. You spend all of last night holding me. You can do it again."

"Yeah, but we were both drunk," I said. "That's totally different."

"Are we friends?" I nodded. "Are you and Brittany friends?" I nodded again. "Do you snuggle with Brittany?"

"Get to the point, Berry."

"Well, if you can snuggle with Brittany, you can with me, too," she said. I was too tired to argue anymore, so I just rolled my eyes and threw my arms around her. It only took us a few seconds to get situated. "See? Isn't this nice?"

"Go to sleep, Berry," I said.

I did think it was nice...but I wasn't gonna tell her that.


	11. Game On

Rachel and I decided to spend Sunday cuddling and watching TV. We actually didn't spend much time actually watching whatever was on. Rachel had decided that since we were friends, we needed to learn more about each other.

"So what's your favorite color?" she asked me.

"Um...red. I look really good in red." Rachel nodded in agreement, and I smiled. "What's yours?"

"I have a hard time deciding between pink and yellow. I find myself constantly repainting my room. For a while, I had two walls pink and two walls yellow, but that just didn't mesh well, so, for now, I've settled on yellow. They were pink the first time you came over."

"I remember," I said.

"Then again, after seeing your room, I've given thought to painting my walls black." I shook my head, and she frowned. "Why not?"

"It doesn't suit you. You're to bright and happy to have black walls. You might try doing your walls one color and the borders another. Like yellow with pink borders or something."

She gave it a little thought. "That's actually not a bad idea," she finally said.

"I sort've have a knack for interior design," I said.

"Is that what you're planning on doing when you're older?" she asked me. I shrugged in response. "What does that mean?"

"It means I haven't decided what I'm gonna do. I wanna get out of Lima, for sure, but past that, I don't really know," I said with another shrug. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal?" she said, sitting up in bed. "Santana we're almost adults. You need to decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life."

"Rachel, I'm 17. I've got a few years to figure all this stuff out."

Rachel shook her head. "Studies have proven that people who set goals for themselves are much more successful in life."

"I have goals," I said. "I just don't think I have to plan out every second of my future. I mean, haven't your plans changed at all?"

"Well...I suppose," she said. "My career plans haven't changed at all, but a lot of my personal plans have shifted."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well...I hadn't planned on losing my virginity until I was 25," she said, and I felt disgusted.

"Who could go that long without sex?" I asked, more to myself than her. "It's, like, a basic need of life."

"Well, how old were you when you lost yours?" she asked. I didn't answer right away, and she looked away. "I'm sorry. That's really personal."

"No, it's just I haven't really thought about my first time in a long time," I said, sitting up and looking at my hands. "Mostly because it sucked."

"You don't have to talk about it if it's a sore subject," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I was fourteen," I said. "It was at a party my freshman year. I was with Quinn. Brittany couldn't come because she had some dinner with her parents or something, and she was the one that usually kept me out of trouble. Mostly because I had to stay sober enough to watch her. Anyways, this guy started flirting with me, and I flirted back, then he asked me if I wanted to go upstairs."

"Did...did he..." I knew what she was trying to ask.

"No, no, nothing like that. I wanted to. I'd wanted to for a while. I figured Quinn had the lock on the virginal princess, so I'd so for the slutty second-in-command. Can't be a slut if you're a virgin, so I was looking to lose my v-card."

"So...it wasn't very good?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "I just wasn't really into it, y'know? He wasn't so concerned with getting me off and he had zero stamina. The plus side was that it could only go up from there."

"Did it?" she asked.

"Did it what?"

"Go up from there."

I thought about it for a minute. "Well, for the most part, it sort of just stayed level. Puck was better because at least we were friends. I don't know, I just usually don't enjoy it. Sex is more like currency for me. I use it to get what I want."

"Have you ever enjoyed it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun with Brittany. She's flexible and all, and she likes to cuddle, which I'm not totally against...except for with the guys. They just feel gross afterwards."

Rachel looked down at her hands again. "Well...what about me? Do you enjoy it with me?"

I thought about telling her no just to mess with her, but I was starting to feel bad about constantly giving her a hard time. "Berry, I can safely say that you're the best lay I've ever had."

She smiled and blushed a little bit. "Thank you, Santana. Although I don't have a basis of comparison, I can tell you that I find our moments of intimacy very enjoyable."

I leaned forward and gave her a quick peck. "That's great to hear," I said with a smirk.

"Do you ever regret losing it like that?" she asked me.

"Eh, sometimes. Sex isn't this magical, life-changing thing for me like it is for a lot of girls." I shrugged, then changed the subject. This was way to heavy. "So what else has changed in your plans?"

"Oh...well, ever since I entered high school, I've always made my plans assuming that Finn would end up being my husband. Even when I was with Puck and Jesse, my feelings for Finn were much greater. I knew he'd be my leading man in life."

I wanted to gag. How could Rachel, who would one day go on to take Broadway and Hollywood by storm, so gaga about a Lima Loser like Finn?

"So what's changed?" I asked.

"I don't know. At first, when he told me about how he slept with you, I was hurt, but I still saw myself with him. As time went on, I just...I guess I fell out of love with him. I started noticing how little we have in common and how much I annoy him. He didn't even seem like he liked me all that much. I need someone who appreciates me, not someone who tolerates me."

I nodded. "I get that. Still, it's gonna be hard. You are really irritating."

Rachel grabbed a pillow and hit me in the face, which turned into an epic pillow fight, which then turned into us fucking each other senseless for a few hours. When we were finished, we were both panting for breath, wrapped up in each other.

"When're your dads coming home?" I asked, barely conscious.

"We just had mind blowing sex, and all you can think about is my dads?" she asked with a laugh. "I'm starting to question your sanity."

"I just don't wanna get caught naked in bed with their 'virginal' daughter, okay? That's not my idea of a good time."

"They won't be home until tonight," she said. "Do you wanna spend the night again? I know it's a school night and everything, but we could go together in the morning. You could swing by your house and get some fresh clothes."

"Three nights in a row together?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you getting tired of me yet?"

"No," she said. "Why, are you sick of spending time with me? I'd understand if you were. It's just that I don't get to spend much time with friends, because I really don't have very many."

I shook my head. "No, you haven't driven me crazy yet. I wouldn't mind another sleepover."

"Um...no funny business, though," she said, and I frowned.

"Why not?"

"Because my dads will be here, and my room may be soundproofed, but they do occasionally come up unannounced to check up on me, and I don't have a lock on my door."

I groaned. "Trust me, we wouldn't get caught."

"As much as I hate turning you down, I'm sticking to my instincts on this one. Nothing good comes out of sex with parents in the house."

"Except for orgasms," I said.

"I think we can go one night hanging out without jumping each other, especially since I just rocked your world."

I scoffed. "Let's not go crazy, Berry," I said. "But fine. We'll just hang out or something, but no musicals." She was about to protest, but I cut her off. "You promised me a musical-free day yesterday, and you lied, so I get one today."

"Fine," she said. We cuddled and watched TV for a while before I had to get dressed and pick up some clothes and my books for the next day. I came back, we had a quickie, did some more naked cuddling, then got out of bed when her dads came home (throwing on our clothes in a hurry when we heard their car pulling into the driveway was not the most fun I've ever had...especially since my brain was still fogged over from the sex). We went downstairs, and they were in the kitchen putting groceries away.

"Hey dads," Rachel said.

"Hey, baby," Michael said, not looking in our direction. "Sorry we're so late. We decided to stop by the store, and your daddy and I got into the name brands argument again.

"I'm telling you, name brands taste better than their generic counterparts," David said, finally turning to look at us. "Oh! Hello, Santana! I was wondering why a car was parked on our curb."

"Hey, David," I said. "You too, Michael."

"What're you doing here?" Michael asked. "Keeping our baby company?"

"Something like that," I said with a smirk, and Rachel elbowed me in the ribs.

"I was wondering if Santana could spend the night. I know we have school in the morning, but we promise that we'll go, and Santana can give me a ride, so you wouldn't have to worry about it."

"That seems okay," David said.

"Yeah, as long as the two of you don't stay up all night talking about boys," Michael said.

"Actually-" I started, but Rachel gave me a glare, and I just smirked and said, "I promise not to keep your daughter up all night...talking about boys."

"Or doing anything else," Rachel said, an edge in her voice, and I decided to not press my luck anymore than I already had.

"Alright," Michael said. "Since you're staying, we usually play Monopoly on Sundays. Care to join?"

"I'm in," I said. Rachel gave me a sideways glance. "Hey, I love a good game night-"

"Santana, while I'd love it if we could spend some time with my fathers, we mustn't forget that we have a glee assignment to work on."

"What glee assignment?" I asked. She shot me a glare, and I got it. "Oh! Yeah, I totally forgot. Maybe next time," I said to her dad.

"Okay!" David said, clapping his hands together. He reminded me a lot of Rachel. It was almost uncanny. "Just know you're missing out. If you two change your mind, you're free to join us. I'm gonna set up the board right now. You coming, Michael?" Rachel's dad just nodded in response, and they left the kitchen. Rachel turned to me.

"You're such a kiss ass," she said.

"Well, I figure I should get in your dads' good graces. Besides, after spending so much time with Britts, I actually do like board games. Besides, that seems like the kind of thing that you'd be into."

"Well, I do enjoy our Sunday family game nights, but I didn't wanna scare you off," she said. I raised an eyebrow at her. "You see, my competitiveness comes from my daddy, so the game tends to get really intense."

"I've been on the Cheerios with Sue for two and a half years," I said. "I can take intense."

"Still, I'd like this friendship to build a little bit more before you see my crazy side."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Rachel. Everyone's seen your crazy side. We're in glee club with you, remember? You literally put tape over your mouth when I got the solo for sectionals instead of you."

"While I'll admit you have seen my inner diva come out in full force, you haven't seen me crazy."

"Okay, whatever, but you have to promise that you'll let me in on one of these game nights."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because that seems like it would be super funny," I said. "Besides, I wanna see the look on you and your daddy's faces when I completely own you."

"Oh please, Lopez. You may have been able to beat Brittany, but trust me, I am the master when it comes to Monopoly." We both laughed and headed back upstairs to her room. We watched some TV, talked a little more, then went to bed pretty early, again, cuddling to each other.

I so did not wanna get out of bed the next morning.

Rachel had managed to completely wrap herself around me in her sleep. I looked at her, and she had this little smile on her face, and she was humming something. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the fact that she even sang when she was unconscious. I wanted to lay in bed a little longer, just so I wouldn't wake her up, but I had to be on the field for practice at six, and I was already behind. I would've gotten up and just left her to sleep, but I was her ride, and she'd said she wanted to go to the choir room early so she could try to write a song or something.

"Rachel," I said, nudging her a little. She just groaned. "Rach, time to wake up."

"Not now, San. I'm accepting my Tony. We can't have sex on stage," she grumbled out.

That put about a thousand awesomely filthy images into my head.

"Rachel, we need to get up," I said, shaking her a little. "We have school."

"Wait until we're backstage," she said. I was really tempted to go along with where this dream was headed, but I didn't feel like dealing with all the physical punishment I'd have to take from Coach.

"Rachel!" I yelled, pulling the covers off of her "Wake the fuck up!"

Rachel sat up in bed, eyes wide and scanning the room to figure out what had woken her up. When she saw me, she sighed in relief.

"Santana, you scared me half to death! Why didn't you just nudge me awake?"

"I tried," I said. "You weren't budging. You were mumbling about the Tony's or something."

"Oh," she said. "It's one of my favorite dreams, winning a Tony."

"And the getting fucked backstage part?" I asked, and she blushed.

"That's...new. So I'm gonna start my morning routine now so I can finish before we have to leave. You can take a shower in my bathroom."

"You won't jump me this time, will you?" I asked with a smirk, and her cheeks managed to get even redder.

"Do you enjoy making me squirm?" she asked.

"I think you already know the answer to that question," I said with a wink, then I went to the bathroom to take a shower. Rachel and I both went through our morning rituals, then rode to school together. Rachel plugged her iPod into my speaker system and sang along to musical soundtracks. Surprisingly, I didn't mind so much. It only took a few minutes for us to get to school.

"So what're you writing a song about?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think I'm gonna try to convince everyone that we should do original songs for Regionals."

"Really?" I asked, and she nodded. I thought about it. It was a decent idea, considering that we needed all the edge we could get. Dalton was good, especially with Kurt, and Aural Intensity loved to majorly kiss the judge's asses, so original songs might be the only way we could pull this off. "That's a pretty good idea."

"Really?" she asked.

I nodded. "I don't know if anyone in the club knows how to write a song, but I'm sure you'll come up with something."

Rachel smiled at me, and I smiled back. "Thank you, Santana. Now, I'm sure you need to get to practice, and I need to start writing, so I'm gonna go," she said. She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek, then left the car.

There it was again...that tingly feeling. I shook it off and went to practice.

Practice was stupid as usual. This bottom of the pyramid shit was getting on my last damn nerve, especially since Quinn was walking around like she's the greatest shit since sliced bread. I mean, am I the only one that remembers that she got knocked up last year?

First period was boring, and I spent the entire time texting Brittany. It's not like I have to pay attention in class anyway. I'm a Cheerio, and our teacher tended to just start talking about what her kids had done the day before that was just _so _cute that we had to hear about it for a half an hour. Seriously, I hadn't learned anything from a class since I walked into the doors of McKinley High.

I met up with Brittany after class. For once, she wasn't with Artie.

"Where's Wheels?" I asked.

"He's around," she said. I could tell she was still hung over from the party on Saturday. "Why don't you look like death? Everyone else in glee club does."

"Eh, lots of water," I said.

"And Rachel," she said, and I nodded without thinking. "So you spent the weekend with Rachel?"

"Wait...what?" She just smiled at me while I frowned back at her. Before I could say anything else, I looked up, and Rachel was at her locker. She looked up at me and waved, and right before I waved back, Azimio covered her in grape slushie.

"You know, purple's a good color on you," Azimio yelled while a few people stood around and laughed. I stood there, watching everyone pointing at Rachel like she was some sort of freak. That was my fault. Mine and Quinn's. We were the ones that singled her out the moment we got to the top of the food chain. Standing here, watching the tears form in Rachel's eyes while she's soaked in purple corn syrup...I felt more guilty and angry at myself than I'd ever felt in my life.

I decided to take out my anger on Azimio. Right as he was in the middle of some painfully un-clever pun to Rachel, I walked up to him and kicked him square in the balls. He fell to his knees, grabbing his crotch. I grabbed his ear and pulled him back to his feet.

"What the hell, Lopez?" Azimio yelled out.

"Okay, this is how this is gonna go," I said. "If you ever slushie or bully Rachel...hell, if you even look at her wrong, I'll make sure to kick you hard enough that you won't have children, you understand?"

"You're crazy!" he yelled, so I yanked on his ear a little harder.

"I'm about two seconds from going all Lima Heights on your ass," I said between gritted teeth. "And just so you know, I have razor blades in my hair. Tons. All up in there, so are we clear now?" He nodded as best as he could with his ear still being pinched. I let him go, and he ran off. I looked at the crowd that was staring at me. "That goes for the rest of you, too!" Everyone averted their eyes and ran off.

Brittany walked up to me. "I don't like violence," she said.

"I know, B," I said, but he deserved it." I turned to Rachel. "Let's get you cleaned up. B, tell Schuester we'll be late, okay?" Brittany nodded and ran off. Rachel and I went to the bathroom after Rachel grabbed her emergency clean-up kit. I wiped some of the slushie off of her face, then helped her wash her hair.

"You didn't have to do that," she finally said as I put in some conditioner.

"Yes I did," I replied.

"It's not that I didn't appreciate it, but isn't this going to put a bit of a target on your back?"

"Nobody would dare slushie a Cheerio. Sue would have them killed," I said. "Besides, I think I sort of owe you for all the times that I was the reason this happened to you."

"I've already forgiven you for all that," she said.

"I know," I said. "That doesn't mean that I don't feel crappy about it,"

She smiled at me, then we dropped back into silence while I finished her hair, then helped her change. She kissed me on the cheek again before we left the bathroom. The rest of the day was full of people staring at me like I'd grown a second head. When Britt and I sat with Artie and Rachel instead of the Cheerios, it seemed that every pair of eyes were on us. That is, until I glared at everyone until they looked away and started talking amongst themselves...probably about Rachel and me, but I didn't really care.

When glee rolled around, Rachel and I walked in together before everybody else.

"Well, besides the slushie, today was actually very nice," she said. "It was fun having you and Brittany around all day. Maybe I'll play my song for the two of you."

"Why don't you just sing it now?" I asked. "It'll be a few before people start showing up."

She shook her head. "It's not quite ready, but I promise that you'll be the first to hear it."

"The first to hear what?" Brittany asked, pushing in Artie with her.

"Oh...oh nothing," Rachel said. "It's just something I'm working on."

"Like a song?" Artie asked.

"It's nothing," she said. I didn't know what that was about, but I didn't push it. Rachel would always have her weird things. A few minutes later everyone filtered in. Finn came in last, staring at Rachel and me when he saw we were sitting together. Glee went on as usual, except no one was really paying attention. When Schuester finally gave up and let us go early, everyone left, still shooting looks at the pair of us. Unfortunately Finn stayed behind.

"So...you two are actually friends?" he asked Rachel.

"Yes," she said.

"Why?" he asked. "I mean, a few months ago, she couldn't stand you."

"People change, Finn. She's apologized, and I've accepted. There's no sense living in the past."

"People like Santana don't change," he said.

"I'm standing right here," I chimed in. "Besides, you don't know what's going on with us, so just back off."

Finn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine. I just wanted to say that I'd like to try to be friends with you again. I know I've been stupid, but...I miss you."

"Hell no," I said.

"Santana-" Rachel tried, but I wasn't hearing it.

"No! He's trying to get back together with you," I said. "Seriously, you could try being a little less transparent."

"I could say the same to you," he said.

"Enough," Rachel said before things could get out of hand. "Look, Santana, I appreciate that you're worried about me, but I have the final say in who I will or won't associate with." She turned to Finn. "If you're willing to respect the fact that I only want friendship, then I'd love to spend some time with you in that capacity."

"Great," he said. "So...I was wondering if you'd wanna catch a movie on Friday."

"Just as friends?" she said.

He nodded. "We'd even split the check and everything."

She thought about it for a minute. I really wanted her to say no, but she was too good a person, so I knew her answer before she even said it.

"Sure. That sounds fine. We'll catch something around six?"

Finn just nodded again, then pulled Rachel into a hug. Over her shoulder, he shot me a smug little smirk.

"Well, I've gotta go," he said, pulling away. "I've got practice. Don't you have practice, too, San?"

I wondered briefly how much trouble I'd get into if I stabbed him in the jugular.

"Yeah," I grunted out. I hated these two-a-days. "I'll see you later, Rach," I said, giving her a quick hug...just so Hudson wasn't the last to touch her. She said something about sticking around in the choir room to work on some stuff until I was out of practice, and Finn and I left the room.

"Look," I said to Finn as we walked down the hall. "I know what you're doing."

"What're you talking about?" he said with fake innocent.

"What did I tell you about playing dumb?"

"Not all of us are up to no good, Santana. I just wanna spend time with her."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Finn."

"What? We're going out to a movie, and probably dinner, as friends. Yeah, we have a lot of history, and I've gotten farther with her than anyone else-"

"Do I need to remind you again that we slept together?" I snapped out.

"You didn't. I know Rachel, and she wouldn't do that. She's not even gay."

"Neither am I, but that's never stopped me," I said.

"Yeah, but you're easy. You'd probably have sex with a shrub if it was in the shape of a person." I went to say something, but he was still going. "The point is that I just wanna be friends. If it goes beyond that, though...well, no sense in stopping the inevitable." He walked into the boys bathroom with that smug smirk on his face again. I was fuming. Sure, I believed Rachel when she said she was over him, but he was right. They did have history, and Rachel was a sucker for romance. I had to make sure that she didn't fall for Finn's bullshit.

"Game on, Hudson," I said. "Game fucking on."


	12. Gay Panic

A/N: Okay, so first, I had writer's block. As soon as I got over that, the screen on my computer decided to quit. It couldn't be fixed, and it was going to cost an arm and a leg to replace, so I'm currently using my plasma screen TV as a computer monitor. Sorry about the wait...and about the chapter. It's shorter than usual, I wrote it in a hurry, and it's angsty. I just hope you all like it. Please, keep it up with the R&R, and I will try my hardest to update more.

* * *

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Rachel and Finn had gone to the movies, and since then, they'd gone out four more times. Rachel was convinced that Finn only wanted to be her friend, and that I was just being paranoid. In fact, we got into a few fights about it...which had ended with us in bed.

What? Angry Rachel was hot, and fighting always turned me on.

So, while Finn was having a positive effect on our sex life, he wasn't doing much for our friendship. On top of that, he was always hanging around her in school. He'd walk her to class and eat lunch with us. He'd call Rachel every night before she went to bed, which she thought was really sweet. I thought it was creepy. He was even making sure that he came to glee club early so he could make sure he got to sit next to her. Sure, I got to sit on her other side, but he was still there, and it was still annoying.

"So are we hanging out again today, Rach?" he asked her one day during glee.

"Actually, she'll be with me today," I said. "Sorry you won't be able to drool all over her-"

"Santana, stop it," Rachel said, then she turned to Finn. "I am spending time with Santana today, but if you'd like to do something tomorrow, I'm free."

"Sure," he said with a smile. "Ice cream?" Rachel smiled and nodded, then went back to writing in her notebook.

"You don't even eat ice cream," I said to her.

"I'm sure they'll be an alternative option for me to eat."

"Yeah, but he wasn't thinking about that." She just waved her hand at me, and I fought off glaring at her. No one waves off Santana Lopez.

"You really need to calm down," Brittany said from my other side. "You get mean when you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous," I said. "I'm frustrated that my friend is playing right into the hand of an ogre. Besides, there will never be a day that I'm jealous of Finn Hudson for any reason."

"Whatever you say, Santana."

The rest of practice went by uneventfully. Mr. Schuester shot some ideas for songs we could sing at sectionals, but I didn't listen, because I knew Rachel's original song idea would get through. When glee was over, I waited for Rachel, but she was hanging around with Finn.

"Hey, we leaving?" I asked.

"Actually, Rachel's playing a song for me," Finn said. "She wants to do original songs for regionals."

To say I was pissed off was an understatement.

"You're playing you're songs for Finn?" I said between gritted teeth. Rachel nodded. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I knew you'd be waiting for me. I didn't think you'd need another formal invitation."

"Can I listen, too?" Brittany said, popping up out of nowhere.

"Where's Artie?" I asked her.

"He's in the library. He's tutoring me in math...or science...or maybe it was both...anyways, I wanna hear your song, Rachel."

Rachel looked a little shy, but finally said, "Sure. You can all listen. Just remember that it's not finished yet, so it may go through some changes before the actual competition." She smiled, and I couldn't help but smile back to reassure her. She started singing.

_There you rest  
With all the rest  
Of my accessories  
On my nightstand._

_You're red or yellow_  
_and like a good fellow_

_Sometimes you get lost in my mess_  
_But when schoolgirl pigtails won't do_  
_and I need to control my do_  
_You're the only one I can count on_  
_My headband_  
_You're my headband..._

I had to stop myself from shaking my head in disbelief. A song about headbands? I mean, I loved them as much as the next person, but they weren't exactly something I felt the need to write a ballad for.

"So...what did you guys think?" she asked.

"Best song ever," Brittany said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it totally spoke to me," she said, and I finally broke down and shook my head a little.

"Yeah," Finn said. "You're a great songwriter." I almost gagged at his obvious ass-kissing.

"So you think I should present this to the club?" she asked, and they both nodded. I couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Okay, no. Rachel, that song was terrible. You couldn't have thought of anything better than headbands?"

The smile that had been on her face turned into a frown. "You didn't like it?"

I shook my head. "Look, I don't mean to be a bitch, but you have to come up with something better than that if you except to win over a room of people that, honestly, spend half their time imagining you with tape over your mouth."

"Way to be harsh, Santana," Finn said, standing up to pull Rachel into a hug.

"I'm not being harsh. I'm just willing to keep it real when you aren't."

"I really did like it," Brittany said.

"I know, B," I said, then turned back to where Finn and Rachel were still hugging. "It's not like I'm saying that you shouldn't push the original song idea, but you have to have a good song to give to the group or they'll just blow you off like they always do."

Rachel finally let go of Finn. "Alright. Let's...let's just go." She walked out of the room without another word, leaving Finn, Brittany, and me in the choir room. We all stood there in silence for a minute.

"This is awkward," Brittany finally said. "I'm leaving now." She left.

"You're not even making this hard," Finn said to me.

"Fuck off, Finn," I said. "I didn't want her to embarrass herself."

"And you think calling her out like that wasn't embarrassing?" He was right, but just because I was Rachel's friend didn't mean that I was soft. I was still me at the end of the day. She should've known not to take it personally.

"I tell it how it is," I finally said.

"No, that's what you say so you have a free pass to be completely awful to people."

I scoffed. "Oh, like you're any better. You play Mr. Superiority and make everyone feel bad whenever they do anything to hurt you, but if you hurt anybody else, it's fair game. In fact, you have a habit of turning it around to somehow have it be their fault."

"At least I actually care about Rachel," he said.

"I care about Rachel. Why do you think I wanna keep her away from a loser like you?"

"You're just jealous," he said. "You just wanna hold Rachel back from love so you won't feel like you're the only one that's alone. It may work for a while, but in the end, she'll choose my love over you, and while she's with me, in a happy relationship, you'll die alone."

I got in his face. "You don't know the first fucking thing about me, so don't fool yourself into thinking that you know where I'll end up." I stormed out of the room. I don't know why I let Finn get under my skin like that. He was just spouting off, but something that he'd said had struck a nerve. Who was he to say that I'd die alone? Did everyone think that about me? Did everyone think that I was so toxic that I'd end up some crazy cat lady? It got me thinking.

_My parents have practically left me to fend for myself. Everyone in school thinks I'm a shrew. Brittany picked Artie over me...sort of. What's to say Rachel won't do the same with Finn?_

I shook my head. I couldn't believe Finn Hudson, who's head was thicker than steel, was making me question myself.

I got to my car, and Rachel was waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" she asked.

"I had some words with Finn," I replied. She didn't say anything back. We rode the whole way to her house in silence. We got up to her room, she turned on the TV, and still didn't say anything to me. The silence was killing me. And to think: this time last year, I would've given anything to get Rachel to shut her mouth for a few minutes.

"Okay, I know you're pissed off," I said. She didn't say anything. She didn't even look at me. "What, did you want me to lie to you or something?"

"No, Santana," she finally said. "It's not your honesty that frustrates me. It's the fact that you have no tact. You knew how self conscious I was about letting people listen to my songs, and you just cut into me. It made me feel like we were back to square one in our relationship. Should I expect a slushie facial in the morning?"

"That's not fair," I said. "I'm like that with everyone."

"You're not like that with Brittany," she said.

"That's because being mean to Britt is like kicking a puppy in the face," I said. "I didn't think you were that fragile."

"Just goes to show how little you've actually tried to learn about me since we became friends. If you really knew me, you'd know that I'm extremely fragile when it comes to me and music. You'd also know that I don't like being fought over like a scrap of meat."

I rolled my eyes. "So this is really about Finn. Of course."

"This is about a lot of things," she said. "Yes, your stupid feud with my ex-and let me emphasize ex-boyfriend is a part of it-"

"Just because you aren't together with him right now doesn't mean that he doesn't want you to be," I interrupted.

"And what, I'm just some poor, helpless girl that'll fall into his arms the moment he shows any interest? Is that all you think of me?"

"You know that's not true," I said. "I just...he just...I don't know, Rachel."

"That's the other problem," she said. "In fact, that's the main problem."

"What is?" I asked, not knowing where this was going.

"You can't admit that you're jealous of Finn."

"Oh, come on," I said. "Why does everyone think I'm jealous? I can't just care about a friend?"

"I don't doubt that you care about me," she said. "You're just not willing to acknowledge how much you do."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Come on, Santana. You know what I'm talking about," she said. I just kept looking at her like she'd grown a second head. "Why...why am I always with the dumb ones?"

"Huh?"

"You have feelings for me!" she yelled. "We've basically been dating for months now!"

I shook my head again. She...we...what?

"You're really not making any sense right now," I said. She pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Santana...can you even remember the last time you slept with anyone else?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was with Puckerman back in December." It occurred to me at that moment that I hadn't slept with anyone but Rachel since this whole thing started. The smug look on her face told me that she knew that, too. "That doesn't mean anything. You're just really good in bed."

"Are you seriously telling me that the only reason that you've stuck around this long is because I'm good in bed?" she asked. "I would've believed that in the beginning, but we've gotten a lot closer since then. You wouldn't treat me the way you do if you didn't have feelings for me."

"Treat you the way I do?" I asked.

"You're fighting for me with Finn, you hang out with me more than anyone else including Brittany, you text me goodnight every night, and you make sure that it's after Finn's already talked to me so you know that you're the last one I speak to before I sleep, you give me rides to school, we're constantly having sex...do I really need to go on?"

"I did a lot of that stuff with Puck."

"You dated Puck!" she yelled. "Besides, I know for a fact that you didn't do any of this stuff with Puck, because we go to the same temple, and we talk about you a lot."

"You didn't tell Puck about us, did you?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"No, I didn't. My point was that he's told me on several occasions what a terrible girlfriend you were. I stood up for you, by the way."

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Look, I like you...as a friend and a hook-up, but that's it, Rachel. I don't date girls, okay? Just let it go."

"I can't just let it go."

"Why not?"

"Because I lo..." She drifted off, but I knew what she was about to say.

"What?"

"I...I care about you, and I just want you to be happy with who you are," she said.

"Please tell me that you weren't just about to say what I think you were about to say," I said. "I can't...I can't deal with this again."

"Again?"

"Brittany," I said. It had killed me to break Brittany's heart. I didn't wanna do the same to Rachel.

"This isn't the same as what you went through with Brittany," she said.

"How is it different?" I asked.

"Because whether you want to admit it or not, you have feelings for me that you didn't have for Brittany. You can't just will them away."

"Yes I can," I said.

"So you admit that you have feelings for me," she said. I groaned.

"That's not what I meant," I said.

"I don't know why you're being so stubborn! I know that being with me wouldn't be easy. On top of the fact that I demand a lot from my significant others, we'd be a same sex couple in a small town. I understand that, but every relationship has its hurdles."

"I'm not gay, Rachel!"

"Yes you are! Just admit it!"

"We can't be friends anymore," I said, and she looked like I'd hit her. " I can't deal with you trying to make me see something in myself that's not there, okay? I'm not gay. I will never be gay. You may have gotten Finn to think whatever you wanted him to, but I'm not an idiot. I know who I am." I was lying thorough my teeth.

Rachel looked panicked. "Okay, you're not gay. I'll...I'll let it go. Just forget I said anything," she said. "We'll just pretend this conversation never happened, and that I was just mad about you being mean about the song. We don't have to stop being friends. We can just...go back to the way things were."

"No we can't," I said. "We can't just go back to the way things were."

"Why not?"

I should've told her the truth. I should've told her that I did have feelings for her...feeling that scared the shit out of me because of what everyone would say about me...and about her. I should've told her that it scared me that I cared about what would happen to her more that what would happen to me. I should've told her that it would be ten times harder to hide my feelings from her and myself now that I knew for sure that she felt the same way. I should've told her that being gay just wasn't okay for me because I'd lose my family. Even if I didn't really have them much as it was, it was better than not having them at all.

I should've told her I loved her, I just hadn't realized until then.

But I didn't.

"Because this isn't gonna be fun for me anymore. You're getting way too clingy."

"Santana," she said. "Don't do this."

"Don't do what?" I asked, smirk on my face. "Look, we had fun, but you got too invested. I can't say that I blame you. I mean, look at me, but I can't have you following me around like a puppy dog. It'll bring down my rep."

"Don't push me away. Don't get mean just because you're scared. I need you, and you need me."

"Okay, let's get something straight, Hobbit." It was the first nickname I'd used on her in forever. "You may need me, but Santana Lopez doesn't need anyone. You live in this little fantasy where everyone is good deep down inside, and you'll get exactly what you want in the end. Face it, Rachel, some people are just mean. If you can't accept that, that you're never gonna get it right." With that, I walked out of her house. I was only half way down her walkway when the tears started to fall. I knew she chased after me, calling my name, but I ignored her.

I couldn't be around Rachel anymore. She put me at ease and made me be myself, and that was dangerous. I needed to be Santana Lopez, HBIC again. I needed to be the girl that everyone, including Rachel...especially Rachel...was afraid to make eye contact with. It was going to take a while to rebuild the walls that she'd knocked down, but I'd have to manage. As much as it killed me, I knew what Step One had to be.

Rachel Berry could no longer be a part of my life.


	13. Bearding

A/N: My computer's broken. I had to steal my girlfriend's computer (well, not steal...just use without consent) just to get this up. Now that she's back in school, I might be able to update more. I'm not sure. For now, I just apologize, and hope that you keep the faith. Enjoy, and R&R.

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Avoiding Rachel turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. For starters, she called and texted me so many times that night that I had to turn off my phone. I'd thought that she'd try to ignore me after I did just that to her, but she just seemed more determined to get my attention. She kept trying to talk to me at school, but I'd just turn the other way and start flirting with whatever man-meat happened to be walking by. I'd even had to block her on Facebook, because she started posting stuff on my wall. Sure, it wasn't anything that would let anyone know what was going on, but it was enough to get people asking me questions, and I really didn't need that.

I thought that she'd eventually get over it, but I should've known she wouldn't let it drop. I just hadn't expected her to come to my house, yelling like a crazy person. It was after school, and I'd thought I'd heard a knocking at my door, but I wasn't in the mood to answer. I figured it was just a door-to-door salesman or Mormons or something, but then I heard the yelling.

"Santana, I know you don't want to talk to me, but I don't care! I'm not leaving until we sort this out!" She followed that by pounding on my door a few times.

I couldn't believe this. Was she fucking crazy? I ran downstairs and flung open the door.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I dragged her inside my house. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Well, I had to get your attention somehow," she said. "Are your parents home?"

"What do you think?"

She nodded. "Good. We can do this right here."

"Do what?" I asked. "I don't have anything else to say to you."

"Well, I have a few things that I'd like to express." I opened my mouth to talk, bu she cut me off. "And don't worry. I won't be using music to make my point. I thought about it, but I couldn't find any songs that adequately said what I wanted to say."

"If I let you get this out, will you stop stalking me?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"I'd hardly say that trying to re-establish communication between the two of us is stalking."

"Whatever, just make it quick."

"In that case, I'll skip the introduction that I had planned and cut to the chase." She took a deep breath. "I'm in love with you, Santana."

"Okay, I've heard enough," I said, and I opened the door for her, but she slammed it shut again.

"I wasn't finished!" she yelled at me. "And just so you know, I won't be leaving until I've said my peace."

"I'll call the cops," I said.

"No you won't," she said back, and I wanted to slap her because she was right. "And you know that I'm not above camping out on your doorstep."

I groaned. The last thing I needed was my parents to come home to an angry Rachel Berry sitting on the doorstep...or, more likely, yelling at me through the door.

"Get on with it," I said between clenched teeth.

"Alright. Like I said, I'm in love with you. I've wanted to talk to you about that for some time, but I was afraid that you would have a case of gay panic-"

"You have to be gay to gay panic," I said. "And I'm not."

"Santana, the fact that you feel the need to constantly re-affirm your supposed heterosexuality should tell you something, but for the sake of keeping this short as you requested, I'm going to ask you to not interrupt me again." I nodded. "Good. Now, I know that I threw too much too fast at you the other day in my room, and for that, I'm sorry. It was just getting frustrating waiting for you to come to your senses, and I'm not exactly known for my patience. Still, it was wrong of me to bring up all these issues at once."

"Is that all?" I asked.

"What did I say about interrupting?" I rolled my eyes, and she kept talking. "Now, I spent the entire night after you left in quite a depression. I cried, and the angst of the situation did help me finally tap a deeper part of myself that I could channel into song writing, but I eventually came to the conclusion that wallowing in my misery wasn't going to do me any good."

"Point?" I asked, ignoring her glare.

"My point is that you were right about one thing you said the other day. You don't need me. Furthermore, I don't need you. I think the reason my relationships so often fail is because I feel like I need the other person. I needed to realize with or without you or anyone else, I'm going to New York, and I'm going to be a star, so think you for helping me realize that."

"So you're gonna back off?" I asked, trying to sound satisfied and not hurt.

"To the contrary, Santana," she said. "Although I don't need you, I want you. I want you to be there while I'm freaking out about passing my finals, and I want you to take me to junior and senior prom, and even though I know it's looking quite far into the future, I want you to come to New York with me and be with me while I rise to fame and fortune."

Fuck her for being so sweet. "And what, you expect me to just follow you like a puppy dog?"

"No, I expect you to discover what you love while you go to school at NYU or somewhere else in the area, and while my star rises on Broadway and possibly on the big screen, yours will rise in whatever profession you choose."

"I can't believe you," I said. "I tell you you're being clingy, and you respond to that by planning out our future together. You're crazy."

"Although I'm not completely thrilled that you keep questioning my sanity, you've called me a lot worse than crazy in the past, and I still managed to fall in love with you, so you can cut the insults. I can tell you now that they won't push me away."

"Whatever," I said. "Are you done now?"

"Not quite."

"Then hurry up. I gots things to do, and-"

I never got to finish that sentence, because she started kissing me senseless. My head was screaming at me to push her away, but my body was completely overruling that and pulling her closer. There was moaning (I'll be damned if I could tell if it was coming from her or me) and I was starting to feel a little dizzy, and _god dammit_ I was in love with Rachel Berry. How had I let this happen?

She pulled away, and I tried to pull her back in. Really, my mind was completely turned off at this point. It wasn't until we'd spend a few seconds not kissing that it turned back on and I backed away a little.

"You can't tell me you don't have any feelings for me after a kiss like that," she said.

I shook my head a few times. "I'm just a good kisser."

"Then why were you making all that noise?" she asked. I guess it'd been me.

"Finished now?" I snapped out, flinging my door open. She shook her head.

"You're really not going to make this easy, are you?" She walked towards the door, but turned to face me before she left. "It's fine. I don't mind a challenge." With that, she walked out the door.

I couldn't believe that I'd let her do that. I was supposed to be a bad ass! Then again, so was Puck, and Lauren had him whipped good...but I wasn't like him! Puck had always been a little soft. I was the HBIC, even if Quinn had stolen the official title. People feared me and wanted to be me. I wasn't supposed to bend to the wills of Rachel Berry!

I had to let her go. If she was gonna come after me, that was fine. I'd throw myself so hard into glee and Cheerios that I won't even have time to notice. I needed to be at the top of the social chain again. I needed to be captain of the Cheerios. I needed the glee club to respect me.

I needed a boyfriend.

I couldn't just date any guy that came along. I needed someone who had a decent rep. Unfortunately, most of the guys on the football team that weren't complete nobodies were in glee club. Mike had Tina, Puck had Lauren, Sam had Quinn, Artie was Britt's...the only one that wasn't, actually, was Finn, and that wasn't happening. Even if he didn't hate me, I'd rather choke to death on one of Sue's diet shakes that ever have to go down that road again. I was starting to feel a little hopeless.

Then I thought of Dave Karofsky.

He was popular, people feared him, he played football, and he'd been one of the names thrown around for junior prom king. The only problem was that he'd basically driven Kurt out of the school, but because I'm a genius, I was even able to make that spin in my favor. I decided to approach him by his locker the next day at school.

"Hey, Dave," I said. "You've been looking pretty hot lately."

He gave a little laugh. "I knew you'd come on to me eventually, Lopez. I'm sort of duke stud around here since we won championships." He gave me a wink and I wanted to barf. Instead, I gave him a wink back and a smile.

"I'm just thinking, since you aren't seeing anyone, and I'm sort of the hottest bitch at this school, we should definitely hook up."

"Like date, right?" He looked a little nervous, which was weird, but I figured I knew why.

"You talk a big game, but you don't really go out with girls much, do you, Dave?"

"What're you trying to say?" He looked around a little bit and damn, he was jumpy for a guy who made it his business to torture everyone around him. I needed him to think I was interested, not like I was trying to question his manhood. I needed to stroke his ego a little. It always worked with Puck.

"Hey, I'm just saying I'd feel lucky if you took me up on my offer. You're obviously really selective." He relaxed a little, and I figured I'd made the right move. "So how about you and me, Breadstix, 8 o'clock?"

"Sure thing," he said with a smile, and I walked away, swaying my hips the whole time. I spent the rest of the day avoiding Rachel. It was made a little bit easier because we didn't have glee that day, but she still tried during passing periods and lunch to get my attention. I managed to make it through the day, and I channeled all of my frustration into Cheerios practice, which actually got me a compliment from Sylvester (actually, I just didn't get any comments on my implants, but I took it as a compliment).

Dinner with Karofsky that night was painfully awkward. We had almost nothing to talk about besides running for prom court and the fact that we both like intimidating people. Actually, when I thought about it, it was a lot like when I was dating Puck, except that at least with Puck, he'd always just stick his tongue down my throat when we didn't have anything to say to each other. Karofsky wasn't even doing that.

"So...did you really get somebody fired because they stopped giving you bread sticks?" he asked me, and I nodded. "Why? Do you really like the bread sticks that much?"

"It was more the principle of the matter," I said. "I had a legal right to those sticks. And also, yes. I do like the bread sticks."

"They aren't even that good-"

"Move on, Karofsky."

"Are you and that Rachel chick friends?" he asked. "Because I don't think we'll win anything if you are."

I shook my head. "No...she's just obsessed with me. I mean, we were for a second, but I'm pretty sure she drugged me, so..." I couldn't say anymore. It was a lot harder being a bitch to her after everything.

"Kind of like with me and Kurt," he said.

"Speaking of Kurt, why were you so hard on him?" I asked. "I know he makes it pretty easy sometimes, but-"

"He's a freak," Dave snapped out, a little too fast for my liking. "He was always looking at me and throwing it in my face that he was gay."

"Calm down," I said. "It's not that big of a deal."

"It is that big of a deal. That little twink almost got me kicked out of school."

"Didn't you threaten to kill him?" I asked. "You were sort of asking for it."

"I wasn't asking for anything!" He was starting to attract a little attention. "He's the one that ran off to Dalton School for Gays-"

I got up and grabbed his arm. "We're leaving now."

"We haven't even ordered yet," he said.

"Don't care." I dragged him out to his car. "Okay, I don't know what your issues are, but Kurt's sort of my friend, and I don't appreciate you bagging on him like that."

"What do you expect?" he asked. "The kid walked around in his weird clothes, giving every guy that walked by the eye. How would you feel if you found out that Berry was gay and had the hots for you?"

_Pretty much how I feel now_ I thought. "Kurt wasn't even into you like that. He spent all last year hung up on Finn, and now he's all over that guy Blaine."

"I don't care!" Dave yelled. "He's the one who sent me signals!"

"What the hell does that mean?" Dave looked torn, like he'd said something he shouldn't have...and then it all made sense to me. "Dave...are you gay?"

"No!" he said, punching the door of his car. "I don't know what Kurt said to you, but he kissed me!" My eyes went wide. This kid was seriously losing it.

"Okay, I suggest you stop yelling and calm down a little bit, alright?"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Fine. If you want all of Lima to know that you want Kurt Hummel's dick, that's just fine with me." He looked like he wanted to yell again, but he kept his mouth shut. "Good. Now, let's get in the car and talk about this calmly, shall we?" He nodded, and we both got in the car.

"If you're planning on outing me, just know that you have no proof. Everyone would just think you were trying to start drama."

"Possibly," I said. "Or possibly, they'll starting thinking about the fact that you're the only guy on the team that's never had a girlfriend. They'll also start to wonder why you picked on Kurt so hard. Sure, about half the masses may think I'm just starting trouble, but everyone will start to watch you more closely, Dave, and seeing as you cracked tonight without me even pushing, imagine what'll happen when people catch you checking out someone's ass in the locker room."

Dave looked like he was about to cry. "What do you want me to do?"

"First of all, you're gonna help me get Kurt back in McKinley."

"No," he said. "No way."

"Let me remind you that none of this is up for discussion. Besides, I'd think you'd want Kurt away from the competition." Being a bitch to Rachel was hard. Being a bitch in general? Not so much. "You're going to apologize to Kurt and the glee club and you're gonna help me stop bullying at school."

"What? Why?"

"We have to have something that gets us votes. Quinn and Sam already have a huge lead on us as far as campaigning, and-"

"Wait," he interrupted me. "We're still campaigning? We're still dating? Why?"

"Because I could use the popularity boost, and you're the only guy that could actually make me gain points instead of losing them." I thought about telling him the truth, but he was a loose cannon, and I was blackmailing him, so I'd rather not have him have something he could use against me.

"So, I do all this, and you won't tell anyone?"

I nodded. "You do this, and you can stay in Narnia for the rest of your life for all I care. Now, drive me home."

I spent the rest of the week making sure that Karofsky and I were seen together around school. People were starting to take notice. I knew it wouldn't be long before it was all over Jacob's blog, and that was perfect...except Rachel noticed, too, and cornered me one day in the bathroom before school.

"What's going on with you and Karofsky?" she asked while I fixed my make-up.

"Hello to you, too, Hobbit."

"I'm sorry if I'm not being completely courteous at the moment, but I just heard a disturbing rumor that the two of you are dating."

"Is it still a rumor if it's true?" I asked with a smirk.

"Do you take pleasure in upsetting me? I'm seriously starting to think you do."

"It does add a certain something to my day."

"I told you I didn't mind a challenge," she said.

"And I told you I'm not gay," I snapped back. "You can't turn me."

"I'm well aware that no one can force anyone to change their sexuality, but I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be a change but an acceptance in your case, Santana."

I rolled my eyes. "Then why am I fucking Karofsky?"

"You...you're not. Are you?"

"It's really none of your business...but yes. I am."

"You're lying," she said, but the certainty wasn't there. Good.

"Rachel, just accept the fact that I've moved on from our little hook-ups. Dave and I are in love."

"You've been talking for three days tops!" she yelled at me. "Ugh, you know what? Do what you want...for now. I'm not giving up on you, Santana. If I could deal with Finn's constant back-and-forth between Quinn and me, I can deal with your struggle with your sexuality." She stormed out of the bathroom. It seemed like nothing I could do would push her away. On top of that, our little argument had left me all hot and bothered...and I didn't have anyone to let that out on, seeing as I had a gay boyfriend, Brittany was still with Artie, and the person I really wanted I wouldn't let be an option anymore.

It was going to be a long day.


	14. What the Fucking Fuck?

A/N: I now have no internet on top of no computer...so that sucks. To add to that, I've been really uninspired as of late. It's a pretty deadly combination. In any case, I already have the next chapter to this pretty much done, so the next time I go somewhere with internet and have my girlfriend's computer, I'll upload that, too. I'm sorry about all this...I just hope you all like this chapter. Enjoy :)

* * *

"Do I really have to wear this? It's bad enough that you're calling it 'The Bully Whips' and making me sell out all my friends."

"Yes, Dave, for the thousandth time, you have to wear it," I said, adjusting my beret in my bedroom mirror. "Besides, I think you look sort of cute."

He rolled his eyes. "Great. That's just what I want. Looking cute isn't exactly making me look less like a fag." I shook my head. Dating Karofsky was turning out to be a pain in the ass. All he ever did was complain. "Also, I don't get how this is going to help us win prom king and queen."

"Look, I already have the majority of the jock vote because of you, but Quinn's got a major lock on the rest of the popular crowd."

"Not really," Karofsky said. "I heard some guys say that if he heard 'Vote Quinn Fabray for prom queen' one more time, he was gonna swallow a gallon of bleach."

I nodded. "I was sort of counting on that. Still, I need to get another group, and who better than the freaks and geeks?"

"Do they even go to prom?" he asked. "Who would they go with? Other freaks?"

I shrugged. "Not sure, but you can vote the whole week before the dance, and nerds love to vote for stuff. It makes them feel important."

"Yeah, well, why don't you get your buddy Berry to get the loser vote," he said. "Isn't she their queen or something? Seems a lot easier and less stupid than starting this stupid anti-bullying crap." I groaned. Of course he had to bring up Rachel...and just when I'd gone a whole five minutes without thinking about her.

Rachel had cut off all communication with me. The phone calls, the texts, the stalker visits to my house...it all stopped after that day in the bathroom. I knew what she was doing; she thought if she played hard-to-get, I'd start missing her and want to go crawling back to her. I used to do it to guys all the time. I'd think it was sort of sad and pathetic if it wasn't working so damn well.

"I told you that we aren't talking anymore," I said. "Besides, she's not their queen. Even they hate her, so 'The Bully Whips' is our only option."

"Whatever," he finally said. "Just as long as you stick to your end of the deal."

I nodded. "I only need you until after prom. After that, you can do whatever you want as long as you stay away from Kurt and the rest of the club."

Karofsky sighed. "And you won't tell anyone...about me?"

"Your secret will be safe," I said with a smirk. "Although, I don't know how much longer you'll be able to keep it a secret. You aren't exactly careful with your leering."

"Yeah, well, I didn't really know when I was a kid to practice checking out guys' asses without getting caught," he mumbled out, and I almost felt sorry for him. As much as it was just in my nature to be a bitch, I let that comment slide. "Is it okay if I take off, now? My dad's making spaghetti, and I don't want it to get cold."

"Fine, but we need to start working on a phrase for our campaign next time. I was thinking 'Vote Santofsky' or something like that. Sound good?" I asked with a shit-eating grin.

"I hate you," he said as he walked out the door. I sighed. I couldn't wait to have this stupid fake relationship over as fast as possible. I just hoped that by the time I won prom queen and Dave and I would "break up" that I'd be over Rachel.

Ugh...Rachel. I hated the way she made me feel. Before she came along, I was perfectly fine with just pretending to like whoever I was with at the time. I was okay with faking orgasms and sort of pretending to care about what they did during their day. I was fine with no feelings and no serious attachment. In fact, I was fine as long as I got bling and attention. Now...now, because of these stupid feelings, all I could think about was what Rachel would think about this or that, or what Rachel was doing, or if Rachel missed me as much as I missed her. It wasn't really even about the sex (although, that was a part of it), it was just about being around her.

It was gross how much I cared about her.

The next day went by in a hurry. Karofsky and I officially started The Bully Whips, which ended with us finally unplugging the slushie machines because we couldn't keep up. Figgins wasn't thrilled, but when I made him realize less slushies meant less kids in his office everyday, which meant less work for him, he cooled down a bit. Before I knew it, I was walking to the choir room for glee rehearsal.

Of course, Finn was sitting next to Rachel. He'd been hovering around her like a fucking hawk ever since Rachel had backed off of me. He'd walk her to her classes and her locker, he'd drive her home, he'd sit next to her in all the classes they had together (I heard he'd even convinced a few teachers to change the seating arrangements around so he could sit next to her)...it was annoying. I would've thought that Rachel would've killed him by now for crowding her so much, but she didn't seem to mind at all, which just served to piss me off even more.

On top of that, everyone was convinced they were dating again. I got to hear in several of my classes how great a guy Finn was to date a girl like Rachel...like she was some kind of second-class citizen, and he was some kind of saint for dealing with her. A few people had been throwing their names around for prom court, but I squashed that really quick. Really, all I wanted to do was ask Rachel if it was true, but that would require talking to her, and I wasn't about to do that.

"Santana!" I heard, snapping me out of my thoughts. It was Brittany. "I saved you a seat!"

I smiled and sat down next to her. "You always save me a seat. You don't have to yell."

She shrugged. "You were zoning out, and I just didn't want you to forget. Anyways, Rachel's supposed to be singing her new song today."

"And why am I supposed to care?" I asked Brittany.

She sighed and leaned in closer to me. "I know you feel like you need to lie to everyone else, but you don't have to do that with me. I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything. I don't care if you're gay."

"I'm not having this conversation right now, and I'm especially not having it in the middle of the choir room."

"No one's listening," she said, and I looked around just to make sure. "You've been so sad lately. I mean, you're usually angry and mean, but you're not usually this sad, and I just want you to be happy. If you'd just admit, at least to me, that you're gay and you love Rachel, you might feel better."

I shook my head. "Okay, let's say I am gay...it would change everything. Everyone would look at me differently."

"No one that mattered would look at you differently," she said. "If they did, then they don't matter."

"It's really not that simple, Britt. I can't just...I mean, if I was gay, I couldn't just tell people. What would people think? What would my parents say?"

"I'm not saying that you have to tell the whole world," she said to me. "I'm just saying you should tell a few people here and there. You like girls. Big deal. So do I, and nothing's happened to me. Worst case scenario, and everyone in the world decides to hate you, and Rachel breaks your heart, which she totally wouldn't do, you still have me." She smiled at me, and I gave her a small smile back.

"I...I don't know."

"Just think about it, okay?" I nodded, and that seemed to satisfy her for the moment.

"Alright," Mr. Schuester said, walking in late as usual. "I know we haven't had much luck yet, but we really need to buckle down and think of a set list for regionals. Any suggestions?"

"Rachel and I should sing a duet," Finn immediately said.

"Why, because that worked so well last year?" Quinn said right after him, and for the first time in a while, Quinn and I were on the same side. "At least Sam and I got first place."

"You tied for first," Kurt said. "And I know from my very short stint with the Warblers that they probably have their entire set list already picked out. Blaine will, of course, be singing lead, so it'll be amazing-"

"Yeah, we know you're in love with Blaine and trying to woo him with your shimmy-shoulder mating dance," I said. "It's all you ever talk about."

He glared at me. "My point is that we're going to need something really different to win this year. We can't just have Finn and Rachel stare lovingly into each other's eyes for the entire set."

"I actually have a suggestion," Rachel said, standing up and moving to the front of the room.

"Oh great," Mercedes said. "She's gonna sing another Funny Girl solo."

"While I do think a rendition of My Man would go over quite well with the judges, I have another idea." Rachel took a deep breath. "I propose that we do our own original songs."

All hell broke loose.

"Hell to the no! Mr. Schue, you can't let her do this!"

"Mercedes is right, she's just trying to control us all yet again," Quinn said. "Let's not forget that we've done really well without Rachel singing lead."

"You're not singing again, Quinn," Kurt said. "I think it should be Mercedes and me with the solos. We're the most ignored talents this club has."

"I'm pretty sure Tina's the most ignored talent," Mike said, throwing an arm around his girlfriend. "She should get to sing."

Everyone was yelling over each other when we all heard a loud whistle from the back of the room. It was Puck.

"Look, I know that Rachel gets on everyone's nerves. On more than one occasion, I've thought about putting a bag over her head and calling it a day, but you guys have to admit that she's sort of our star." Everyone started talking again. "Hey! I'm not saying that we're not all awesome. She's just sort of the glue that holds us together. Do you really think we would've made it this far if it weren't for Rachel annoyingly nagging at us to practice all the time? The least we could do is just hear her out."

Everyone settled down, and I was just glad that I hadn't had to say anything.

"Thank you, Noah. I appreciate it, even though most of your compliments were sort of backhanded insults." She took a deep breath. "I've actually written a song that I'd like to submit for consideration, and while my earlier attempts at writing songs were...less that successful, I feel that I've experienced enough angst as of late to give me a new perspective, and-"

"Just sing the damn song!" Puck yelled, and Rachel nodded.

_What have I done? I wish I could run.  
Away from this ship going under  
Just trying to help, hurt everyone else  
Now I feel the weight of the world is  
On my shoulders_

What can you do when your good isn't good enough?  
When all that you touch tumbles down?  
'Cause my best intentions keep making a mess of things  
I just want to fix it somehow  
But how many times will it take?  
Oh, how many times will it take for me?  
To get it right...

She stared at me through the whole song, and I tried my hardest to not let it look like it was affecting me. She'd written this for me...she felt like she'd messed this up. And she had...sort of...I think. I mean, she'd been the one pushing me to wave a rainbow flag or some shit. She was the one telling me she loved me and making me feel stuff. She was the one who'd made me fall in love with her. This was all her fault.

And yet, I still felt guilty.

Fucking Rachel.

After she was finished singing, everyone started clapping (myself included, no matter how much I wanted my hands to stop).

"So," she finally said after a few seconds, "I think I've made my case."

Mr. Schuester stood up. "Rachel, that song was really good, but I don't know if it's the best idea right now."

Rachel looked heartbroken. "But...It's a good idea. And I worked really hard on that."

"I know, but I don't think we have enough time. We'd have to write at least one more song and figure out all the choreography. It's a lot to do. Plus, it's a big risk to take. The song was good, but I don't know if it was good enough to stand up to the competition. It was a nice thought, but I don't think it'll work. I'm sorry."

I wanted to kill Will Schuester. Why was it that he always decided the worst possible moments not to give Rachel what she wanted? I could tell this meant a lot to her...a lot more than the usual solo, and that was saying something. I was hoping someone would speak up on her behalf. I knew it wouldn't be Puck; he'd already done his good deed for the day, and I'd seen Lauren glaring at him the whole time. I'd expected White-Knight-Hudson to come save the day, but he was just staring at his shoes.

Typical.

All I knew is that it couldn't be me who said anything. I wasn't about to undo all the hard work I'd done to distance myself from her just because she looked like a puppy that had been kicked in the face. I couldn't...I wouldn't...

"I say we do it," I said before I could stop my stupid mouth.

"Santana, while I appreciate you participating, I don't think it's a good-"

"Yeah, well, let me say what I'm gonna say," I snapped with a glare. "Look, it's something that none of the other schools are gonna be doing. We'll get points for creativity or whatever."

"That's true, but it's still a lot to do, and-"

"Oh, please." I was determined not to let Schuester finish a sentence. It served him right for shutting Rachel down like he did. "You're acting like we don't do everything at the last minute every competition. I mean, last year at sectionals, we had to make all our stuff up in an hour."

"That wasn't the same," he said. "That was an emergency."

"And yet, we still won, didn't we?" I said with a smug smile. "Look, as much as I hate to admit it, Kurt's right. The gay ham over at Dalton is really good, despite the fact that he pulls more faces than Stretch Armstrong."

"Harsh," Kurt said, but I ignored him.

"And Aural Intensity are ass kissers. If we wanna beat them and have a shot at nationals, we can't play it safe. We have to do something really different and really good. Rachel's song was both of those things. For the other song, we can just all pitch in and write something together. We'll have plenty of time to get everything done, and we'll actually have a shot at winning."

"The song was really pretty," Brittany said out of nowhere. "It made me wanna die, but in a good way. And it's totally cool that you're saving My Headband for your solo album."

That threw everyone for a few seconds, but Mr. Schuester finally recovered.

"Okay, well, we'll put it to a vote. All those in favor of doing original songs?" My hand flew up, and Brittany's hand went up right behind mine. Artie was in, too. He was turning out to be quite useful.

"Well," Puck said, "it was a good song, and I really wanna win. Plus, if Santana's willing to go along with it, despite the fact that it's coming from Berry, it has to be a fantastic idea." His hand went up (and he shot me a grin and a wink), and so did Lauren's. Everyone else followed that, and Rachel's face lit up. I couldn't help but smile.

"Well, that settles it. Original songs it is. Let's get to it!" Mr. Schuester said with a clap, like he hadn't just been about to shut the idea down. We spent the rest of rehearsal assigning back-up parts for Rachel's solo, and trying to write something for the second song (with mild success...we'd at least decided to sing something about overcoming feeling like losers, so that was something). When rehearsal finally ended, everyone filed out of the room but me, Rachel...and Finn.

"See, I knew that people would like it," he said to her. "You had nothing to worry about. I told you it would work."

"Yeah, Rachel," I said...apparently, I just had absolutely no control over my mouth. "It's a good thing that Finn sat there silently and didn't vote for original songs until we already had majority. He's really such a great support system."

"Santana, don't," Rachel said. "Just...don't."

"What, I pretty much single-handedly got you what you wanted, and I don't even get a thank you?"

"I'm pretty sure it was Rachel's song that did it, Santana," Finn said to me.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm just saying. One of us stepped up to the plate; one of us didn't."

"Finn, can you wait outside?" Rachel asked him. "I'll meet you by your car."

"Sure thing," he said, then he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. I about lost my lunch.

"So what, are you two dating now?" I asked her, trying so hard to sound like I hadn't been dying to ask her that for days. "You seem pretty chummy lately."

"It's really none of your business, is it?" she snapped. "We aren't friends. We aren't even occasional verbal sparring partners anymore, so why do you care?"

"I-" I tried to say something mean...something that would send her home crying, but nothing came to mind.

_Great...my mouth only works when I don't want it to. Fantastic._

"Did you actually have anything to say to me, or are you just getting your daily dose of pissing Finn off?"

"When did you write that song?" I asked.

"I think you know when," she said, looking at the floor. "You sort of inspired the central theme of the entire piece, after all." We dropped into silence for a while, then Rachel spoke up again. "I'm glad you liked it."

"I didn't hate it," I said with a roll of my eyes. "I mean, it's not like I'm putting it on my iPod or anything."

She laughed. "All the same, I appreciate that you stood up for me."

I shrugged. "Whatever. I don't like losing."

She sighed. "You have got to be the most stubborn person I've ever met. We've had sex and gone on dates that you refuse to call dates and you stand up for me when no one else will-" I tried to interrupt, but she just held up her hand. "Before you try to make the case that this was an isolated incident, I'd like to remind you of the numerous times you've defended my honor in front of Finn."

"That's not the same," I said. "Finn's an asshole."

"What about the time with the slushie?" I opened and closed my mouth a few times. "I think that settles that."

"Point?"

"How can you still pretend you don't at least like me in more than a friendly way?" she asked, throwing her arms in the air. "How can you stand up for me like you just did and act like it was about winning regionals?"

"Um...because it was," I said. She stared at me. "And yeah, the song was pretty good." She kept staring at me. "And maybe I don't totally hate you, so I don't like seeing you upset."

"And maybe you're in love with me and afraid to admit it," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And maybe you're totally delusional because I'm head-over-heels for Karofsky, and we're going to prom together."

"And maybe Finn asked me to prom," she said. "And maybe I said yes."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, you've already played the Finn-makes-me-jealous card so many times, I've lost count. It's getting old."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know, every time I talk to you, I feel like I'm in kindergarten. Can't we just talk about our feelings like mature adults?"

"I don't have any feelings to talk about," I said.

"Yeah, well, I do," she said, and I knew I was in for a speech. "So, just so you can sleep at night, and in the interest of being completely honest, I'm not seeing Finn in a romantic sense." I almost pumped my fist in the air, but I controlled myself at the last minute. "We've been spending a lot of time together, but that's just because...well...I've been lonely as of late. I don't really have many friends, and Finn's offering, so even though I know his intentions are to lure me into a relationship, I still hang out with him, because he's better than no one at all. We are going to prom together, but I've told him several times that it's just as friends. I don't think he's fully accepted that, but I want you to know on my end, it's completely platonic."

"So?" I said. "It's not like it matters to me."

She took another deep breath. "Furthermore, I want you to know that what you're doing with Dave isn't right. You're using him."

"We're both benefiting from it, so who cares?"

"I know Dave's gay," she said, and I raised an eyebrow at her. "I have two gay dads, I'm bisexual, and Kurt and I have become closer as of late. It took me a little bit to figure it out, considering that I was blinded by jealousy, but my discovering of his secret was inevitable. I have excellent gaydar."

I laughed. "So why do you care that I'm using him?"

"Because it's not healthy...for either of you." I looked at the ground, and she came closer. "Santana, you and David need to accept who you are and who you want. He can't help it that he has the hots for Kurt." She lifted my chin with her finger. "And you can't help that you have feelings for me...no matter how hard you try."

"Yes I can," I grunted out.

"Really?" she asked, and I nodded. "Then tell me that you don't wanna kiss me right now."

I wanted to...I really wanted to, but the words weren't coming. Instead...well...I kissed her. It was pretty chaste, considering that I remembered what we'd done the last time we were in here alone. I felt her smile a little bit, and I couldn't help but have a smile of my own. It was moments like this that I wondered why I didn't just let go...let myself love Rachel like she wanted me to...like I wanted to...

"What the fucking fuck?"

I pushed Rachel away and spun to look at the choir room doorway.

There, standing with a look of pure shock on his face, was David Karofsky.


	15. Dave Karofsky

A/N: This is really just a filler chapter to lead into prom. Still, I hope you enjoy :)

* * *

"Dave, just hear me out," I said.

"Were you just kissing Rachel fucking Berry?" he asked, still in shock.

"I...she just sort of threw herself at me," I said, and Rachel, to my surprise, nodded.

"That's right. I just got caught up in a moment and grabbed her," she said. "There's no need for you to tell anyone about this. In fact, it would probably be better if you didn't say anything to anyone, because really, this wasn't Santana at all."

I rolled my eyes. "Smooth, Rachel."

Dave laughed a little. "Yeah, I would've bought that if Lopez's hands weren't plastered to your ass."

I blushed. I actually fucking blushed.

"It wasn't what it looked like," I tried, but he just shook his head.

"You told me she was stalking you," he said. "You told me she was obsessed with you and wouldn't leave you alone."

"You told him that?" she asked me, then she turned to Dave. "I can assure you that I'm not a stalker. Santana's just-"

"Not right now, Rachel," I said.

"So you've been blackmailing me and running around with Berry this whole time?" Dave asked with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, this doesn't change anything. You still need me, so just turn around and walk away."

Dave shook his head. "Yeah, okay, I still need you, but now I know you need me, too. And I know you have something to hide."

I didn't like this. "What're you getting at?"

"No more making me your bitch," he said. "We still go to prom, and we still stick to the deal, but in the meantime, I'm not running anymore errands for you, I'm not going along with your stupid slogans, and I'm definitely not wearing this stupid uniform anymore." He adjusted the beret on his head a little, and I sighed.

"No one would believe you," I said. "Unlike you, I actually have a track record."

"Have you been paying attention at all, Lopez? There's been rumors about you since everyone found out you and Brittany hooked up. Trust me, with you two acting all chummy like you were, people would believe me, even if you have fucked almost every guy at this school."

"Don't talk to her like that," Rachel said.

"She's been using me as her trophy boyfriend for the past-"

"I know that Santana's done some things that were less than kind to you, including threatening you with something that could so easily be thrown back in her face." That last part was said right to me. "Still, that doesn't give you the right to be rude, and I'd greatly appreciate it if you refrained from insulting her. She's still a human being, after all."

"Oh God, you guys are in love."

"No we're not!" I said. "Look, I won't make you wear the uniform everyday...just Fridays or something. You don't have to get me coffee, but you still have to walk me to class. The rest, we'll deal with on a case-by-case basis, you understand?"

He thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "Sounds fair," he said. "You know, I can't wait until this stupid prom is over. You're a huge fucking headache." With that, he walked out of the room.

I just stood there for a minute before Rachel spoke up.

"Well, all things considered, that could've been worse. At least you've got dirt on David that will keep your secret, and at least it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time we got caught in here."

"Why do you care?" I asked. "Why are you trying to cover for me? I thought you wanted me out or whatever."

She sighed. "Santana, just because I want you to admit how you feel doesn't mean that I want you outed. It's completely different."

"Is it?" I snapped. "It feels the same to me. It feels like you're pushing me to do something I don't wanna do."

"You're not being fair, and you know it," she said. "I'd never out you before you're ready. Yes, I may push you to accept yourself. I may even push harder than I should at times, but that's only because I want you to be happy. And yes, I'm selfish, and I want you for myself, but really, that's a secondary goal at this point. Although, I'm really hoping to have my cake and eat it, too in this situation. The cake being you coming out, and the-"

"Yeah, okay, I get it!" I yelled. "Jesus, don't you get that this isn't what I want? I don't wanna be in love with you. I don't want all these feelings that I've never had before. All I've ever wanted to do was get through high school on top, and be prom queen, and stick it to Quinn Fabray because I was finally better than her, and then get out of this stupid town and marry a football player who would take care of me. You're ruining my life plans!"

Rachel looked at the ground. "I'm sorry. Honestly, when I started this, I wasn't expecting anything to come of it. I wasn't expecting to feel this way, either. Really, I was just hurting and not thinking clearly, and I'd been attracted to you for a while. I just wanted to know..."

"What?" I asked. "What did you want to know that you needed to get into my pants for?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to know if I could go through with sleeping with a girl...or anyone, for that matter...I wanted to know if my feelings for you meant anything, I wanted to know if someone like you would even be interested in me...there were a lot of factors."

"And are you happy now?" I asked, grabbing my stuff. "You see the shit storm you've caused. Are you pleased with yourself?"

Rachel looked at me before she spoke. "Well, no, I'm not particularly happy with the way that this has all played out, but if you're asking me if I'd do it again, then my answer is yes. I would." I shook my head and started to walk out of the room, when I heard Rachel mumble something under her breath.

"What was that, dwarf?" I asked. I really should've just left, but I just felt the need to have the last word.

"I said...I said I could take care of you, if that's what you really want."

Well...so much for that last word.

I left the room before I did something stupid like cry or grab her and kiss her...again. This whole denying my feelings to Rachel and myself and everyone else was starting to unravel very quickly. Something was going to give, and I felt like once one thing fell, the rest would go with it.

I couldn't have that. I was so close to having what I want. And yes, it may have just been a stupid crown on the surface, but it meant a lot more to me. It meant finally really being the HBIC. Not because Quinn fell from grace and I was put in the position by default, but because I really was the top of the social chain.

Yeah, it seems stupid on paper, but it really meant a lot.

I spent the rest of the week campaigning with Dave. Sure, people didn't exactly think we were the cutest couple ever, but we had a nice mix of popularity and intimidation that was winning the crowd over. With Quinn and Sam quickly fading, and Lauren and Puck never being real competition (Puck had actually gotten down on his knees and begged for my forgiveness when I'd found out he was running against me), things were looking up.

"Okay, you need to stop this...whatever...that you and Karofsky have going on." It was Brittany. She'd been surprisingly quiet about this whole thing, so when she confronted me by my locker one day, I wasn't really surprised.

"Dave and I aren't breaking up anytime soon," I said. "We're in love."

"It's gross," she said. "Besides, it's not like you even like him. And he can't like you. He's a bigger unicorn than you are."

"Wait...what?"

"Just stop this, Santana," she said. "You're hurting Rachel, and you're hurting you. I don't like you hurting. It makes me sad, which makes Artie sad, which makes me even more sad, and I'm losing track of all the sad that's going around. It's too much."

I shook my head. "Look, Britt. I know you mean well, but you don't get what's going on."

She sighed. "I may be dumb-"

"You're not," I said. "Don't say that about yourself."

"Whatever. I might not always get things and I know I'm slow when it comes to math and stuff, but I know you. I know that you're into Rachel, and I know it scares you."

I sighed. "Why is everyone giving me the gay panic speech?"

"Because you won't stop gay panicking. You've been gay panicking since that day on your bed when I wanted to sing Come To My Window. It's only gotten worse since you started sleeping with Rachel," she said to me, and I had to admit, she had a point.

"What if I said I was happier just...going back to the way I was before Rachel and all this stuff happened?"

Brittany thought about it for a second before she said, "I think you'd be lying to both of us."

Ugh...stupid best friend who knows everything about you...

"Do you need a hug?" Brittany asked me. "Would that help?"

I shook my head. I was pretty sure that if she hugged me, I'd break into tears like a drunk...well...me, and I wasn't into doing that in the middle of the hallway.

"We'll see what happens after prom and regionals and all that," I said, and Brittany nodded.

"I guess that's fair," she said. "Um...I know that there's been a lot of other drama, but am I the only one that's really nervous and excited for regionals? I mean, what happens if we don't win? Do we lose the club like we almost did last year?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know what happens. I think we have it, though. The other schools are jokes, and our setlist is killer. We have a secret weapon."

"Yeah, plus Rachel's song really is good," she said. "It's really cool that you stuck up for her the other day."

I just nodded in agreement. Brittany took the hint and left me alone, mumbling something about finding Artie. I hated being like this with Brittany. She was my best friend, and all we ever talked about was Rachel. I sighed, closed my locker, and went to my next class.

Regionals went perfectly. Rachel killed her solo (like that's a surprise), and our group number, Loser Like Me, went over surprisingly well with the crowd (I would've liked it better if Finn hadn't sang in it, but whatever). I was pretty sure we had it in the bag before the performance was even over. It was the first time I'd been happy since Rachel and I had fallen apart.

I was on cloud nine for the next few days. That is, until I got back into the whole campaigning thing, and I had to have Dave plastered to my hip again. Rachel had backed off again, but she wasn't avoiding me. I found out she was still going to prom with Finn, which I hated, but I couldn't really say anything about it. Technically, I was dating someone else, and I just had to trust her when she said she was done with Finn as anything more than a friend.

"So how goes your campaign?" Puck asked me a few days before prom while I was getting stuff out of my locker during lunch.

"Better than yours," I said with a smirk.

"Please. Like I'm trying to be crowned the lame ass prom king," he said. "I'm going for the anti-crown."

"Does Lauren know about this? I'm pretty sure she'd chop your balls off if she did."

"Whatever," he said with a roll of his eyes. "The Puckzilla can't be tamed. I do what I wanna do. No chick's gonna stop that."

"So she doesn't know?" I asked with a smirk.

"No, she doesn't know," he said, and I laughed. "I don't get why you girls are so obsessed with this thing. Especially you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I get Lauren's reasons. She may walk around like she thinks she's the hottest shit since sliced bread, but she's got some serious self-esteem issues. And Quinn...well, Quinn's a little crazy, and I partially blame myself for it getting as bad as it has-"

"Yeah, what, with the impregnating her and everything."

"Yeah, but she's always had that insane cut-throat white girl vibe. It wasn't all my fault. So yeah, while it's still crazy, they have reasons to do this."

"And me?" I asked. "What's so different about me?"

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "It just seemed like you were starting to be over this kind of stuff a few months ago. Now, you're right back in it. I just...don't get it."

"I just lost my focus for a while," I said. "That's all."

Puck shook his head. "It feels like you're losing your focus now. I mean, you're dating Karofsky."

"Why is everyone so obsessed with me dating Karofsky?" I asked. "It's not like I'm the only one dating someone less than savory in the glee club."

"It sorta makes me wanna barf, Santana," he said. "And you keep having this whole love/hate thing with Rachel. What's going on there?"

"Nothing's going on there," I said. "We were friends. We aren't now. End of story."

"Look, dating Lauren has taught me a few things. It's taught me that you shouldn't sing songs to girls about weight no matter how romantic you think it is. It's taught me that no matter how badass I think I am, there will always be someone out there more badass than me."

"Juvie didn't teach you that?" I asked, and he ignored me.

"It's also taught me that when girls say stuff, they actually mean other stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "That's a brilliant deduction, Puck. How long did that one take you?"

"I'm just saying that I know there was something going on between you and Rachel. I just don't know what exactly it was. Just tell me what it was so I can, y'know, be sympathetic and stuff."

"You know, you're almost deep, and then you keep talking, and it all goes away." I tried to walk away, but he blocked my path.

"Are you in love with Rachel?" The question caught me off guard. I knew he had to be catching on a little bit, but I'd figured he'd ask if we were hooking up or something. I guess I didn't speak for long enough, because Puck smiled at me and said, "I knew it. I knew it since that stupid party at my house."

"You don't know shit," I said. "So just leave me alone."

"What? I'm happy for you," he said. "You guys work in a really weird, hot kind of way. You're both loud and crazy. I always had a feeling that you'd either end up killing each other or having really hot sex. I just don't get how this all led to you dating Karofsky. I feel like I missed a step."

I sighed. I might as well tell him something.

"Okay, we were fucking-"

"Hot," he said, and I smacked his arm. "I'm sorry! I'm still me!"

"Whatever," I said. "So yeah, we were doing that, then we were friends and hanging out and sort of dating, but it wasn't really dating. I don't know. Things got complicated, so now I'm dating Karofsky."

There. Quick. Like ripping off a band-aid.

Puck still looked confused. "Okay, you and Rachel were dating, broke up-"

"Not exactly," I said, but he didn't even hear me.

"-and now you're dating Karofsky...because you're bi?"

"I'm not really dating Karofsky, okay? We're just using each other so we can win prom king and queen. He was my only option."

"So you're, like, a total lesbian?" he asked, but didn't even wait for an answer. "So I was just a phase?"

"Are you mad?" I asked. Puck could be annoying, but he was still my friend.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "I'm the last dude you ever slept with, right?" I nodded, and he smiled. "I'm your last memories of a man, and I know I've made you finish at least a couple of times-"

"I wasn't exactly thinking about you," I said.

"Doesn't matter. It still counts." I rolled my eyes, and he kept talking. "Plus, now you can be my lesbro, and we can check chicks out together."

"That's not happening," I said. "And did you miss the part where I'm dating a guy?"

"You just said that you were fake dating him...oh, so you're still doing the closet thing?" Again, he didn't give me a chance to answer. "Wait, isn't Rachel going to prom with Finn?"

"Yes," I groaned out. "Don't remind me."

"So is she gay, too?" I shook my head. "Bi?" I nodded, and Puck laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"It's just...I was really dreading this dance, because dances are usually only good for the after parties, but I'm pretty sure that prom is gonna be awesome this year! Good luck!" With that, he patted my shoulder and walked away.

I groaned, already feeling a headache coming on. Prom was going to be a lot of things...awesome was not one of them.


	16. Prom

A/N: So, I got a promotion at my job that has me working 5 to 6 days a week, 9 hours a day. Add that to me going to school and trying to keep up a bit of a social life, and I just have almost no time to write...or sleep, for that matter. In any case, I'm sorry that I've had to put writing on the back burner, but I'm not stopping, because I really enjoy it. As far as this story goes, there'll probably only be one more chapter after this one, so we're almost at the end. I hope you enjoy :)

* * *

Prom.

Junior fucking prom.

Sure, it wasn't really as important as senior prom, but it still meant something. Besides, everyone knew that if you won junior prom queen, you were basically a shoe-in for senior prom queen the next year.

I'd been anticipating my junior prom since the moment I stepped into the doors of McKinley high school, and so far, things were going pretty close to plan. I had a nice piece of arm candy that was decent at following orders, my competition for prom court was looking pretty weak, and I had the most amazing dress (red, of course), so really, I should've felt on top of the world.

Of course, there was the whole thing of my boyfriend being gay, and the fact that I was in love with Rachel Berry, who was going with Finn Hudson, who I hated...yeah, that really wasn't part of the plan.

Whatever, I wasn't going to let that get in the way. All I needed to do was win. That's all that mattered.

"That doesn't even matter," Brittany said to me as we were getting ready together. "Prom is supposed to be about dancing and fun, not winning stupid crowns that you could get at party store for fifty cents."

"It's not about the crown itself, Britt. It's about what it represents."

"Which is what?" she asked.

"It's...it's about being the best...and stuff."

"Yeah, I guess, but it's about being the best of a bunch of Lima Losers. Really, who cares?"

"I do," I said.

"No you don't," she replied. "Not really."

I shrugged. "Whatever. It'll be nice to see the look on Quinn's face when Figgins calls my name."

Brittany sighed. "Wouldn't it be nicer if you danced with Rachel and had a good time instead of stressing about stupid prom court? I know I'd rather be dancing with Artie than dating a gay guy."

"Artie can't even dance," I spat out, and she glared at me. "And how'd you know he's gay?"

"Uh, I have eyes, Santana. He's practically spewing rainbows."

I shook my head. "Look, I'm glad that you're gonna have a great time with Stubbles McCripplepants, and I get what you're trying to do, but just stop. I'm going to prom with Karofsky, and as unsatisfying as it'll be, I'll be leaving with him, too. Even if I am...you know...I'm not ready to deal with it."

She shrugged. "I just think you'd be happier. That's all."

"I know that, okay?" I snapped. "I know I'm gay. I know that I love Rachel. I know that if I just let myself feel all of that, that I might feel better about myself, but it's not that simple. What about school? Kurt got run off of campus because he was being bullied so bad. What about my family? They're barely around as it is. What'll they do if they find out their only daughter is a dyke?"

"Don't call yourself that," she said, trying to wrap me in a hug, but I just held up my had to stop her.

"Brittany, we're best friends, and we're getting ready for one of the best nights of our lives. Can we just not talk about Rachel Berry for the rest of the night?"

Brittany just looked at me for a few seconds. I knew she was only pushing because she cared, but I couldn't deal with it. Especially since I was trying to prep myself for seeing Finn following Rachel around all night. I just needed my best friend.

"Santana?" she finally said, and I looked at her. "Can you do my hair? I can never get it right."

I just smiled and told her to sit down.

* * *

"Well, this is super fucking awkward."

"Shut up, Karofsky. Someone might hear you."

"Yeah, well, everyone can see us standing weirdly off to the side doing nothing. I'd be more concerned with that."

"Seriously, keep your mouth closed or I swear to God I'll make sure no man will ever get to experience Little David because I'll cut it to pieces."

Karofsky looked around in a panic. "Keep your voice down! What if someone hears you?"

"You weren't so concerned with anyone hearing anything a minute ago."

He shook his head. "I seriously can't wait until I don't have to deal with you anymore."

"That makes two of us."

He rolled his eyes. "This was your bright idea, remember?"

"That's beside the point," I said as the song changed to a slow one. "Alright, let's dance."

He groaned. "Do we have to?"

"You were the one bitching about standing on the side, so yeah." I grabbed his hand and dragged him onto the dance floor. He was such a bad dancer. I didn't think guys actually stepped on their date's toes until Karofsky did it to me...three times. I just about slapped him the third time.

Of course, it didn't help that I couldn't stop staring at Finn and Rachel on the other side of the gym. I could tell Finn was trying desperately to dance as close to Rachel as he possibly could, but Rachel didn't seem so into it. She was still laughing whenever he'd whisper something in his ear, like she was having the best time in the world. I hated it. I hated that she was having fun without me, I hated that he got to dance with her at all, and I hated that it was my fault.

"Why'd they have to come?" Karofsky said, bringing my attention back to him. At first, I thought he was talking about Finn and Rachel, but then I saw him looking over my shoulder. I turned my head and saw Kurt and his boyfriend dancing together. "He doesn't even go here. And seriously, look at his eyebrows."

"How did I not notice you were gay before?" I asked, and he just glared at me for a second before looking back at Kurt and Blaine. "It's really bothering you isn't it?"

"He's just such a tool. What does he have that I don't?"

"Well, he's out, and he didn't threaten to kill Kurt, so I'm pretty sure that gives him a leg up."

"Could you just for, like, the next ten seconds not be a raging bitch? I just..." He looked over my shoulder again, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. We weren't very different. I mean, yeah, he took it way too far, but I got where he was coming from.

"Look, Dave. I know it's not easy...being like this, and I know that it sucks seeing Kurt with somebody else, but you'll get over it, and you'll get over him. I mean, Kurt's not even that great."

"Yeah, whatever."

"No, seriously. He dresses like a clown, and when he sings, you can't see his teeth. It's weird."

David laughed a little bit. "I've never noticed that before."

"Trust me. You could do a lot better. You'll get into the real world and find someone that you really love, and then you'll laugh about your little high school crush on Kurt Hummel."

He smiled. "Thanks, Santana. You know, if you were like this more often, I might not hate you so much."

"Yeah, but what's the fun in that?" I smiled, and we kept on dancing.

The dance actually got a little bit better after that. Dave and I spent a lot of the night bitching about Finn and Blaine, and we actually had a few fun dances together. I'd even go as far as saying that I didn't totally hate him anymore. He even managed to make me forget about how miserable I was for a few seconds. Then I'd look across the room and see Finn and Rachel, and I'd remember again.

"Alright, students," Figgins said over the microphone. "Prom king and queen will be announced in ten minutes. Get excited!"

"I'm going to the bathroom to touch up my makeup," I said to Karofsky.

"Alright," he said. Before I got away, he grabbed my arm. I looked back at him, confused, before he started talking. "I just wanted to say good luck."

"Thanks," I said with a smile. "You, too."

I went into the bathroom. Of course, I looked flawless. No amount of stuffy air or uncomfortable closeness with people I barely know could ruin how hot I looked tonight. Still, I wanted to make totally sure that there wasn't a hair out of place. The last thing I needed was smeared mascara when I went to receive my crown. When I was sure that I was totally put together, I went to leave.

Of course, Rachel was standing by the door.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi," I said back. We just looked at each other for what felt like forever. It was definitely too long for me. "So, I'm leaving now."

"I just wanted to wish you good luck," she said before I could leave. "I voted for you, just so you know. I'm pretty sure half the club voted for you. I even overheard Puck telling some of his jock friends that he voted for you over Lauren."

"I'm sure Lauren doesn't know about that," I said with a slight smile.

"Are you kidding? She'd kill him," she said with a little laugh. "I just...I just wanted you to know that there are people that care about you. People that will love you no matter what happens tonight, or any other night, for that matter."

"Yeah...thanks," I said, feeling the awkwardness settle in again. "Was there anything else? I sort of need to get on stage."

"I saw you looking at me, Santana," she said, and I sighed. "I just can't help but wish that we got to dance together tonight. I know you want to, and I know I want to-."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, you seem to be having a great time with the Jolly Green Giant, so I don't know why you need me."

She shook her head. "You don't get to do that, Santana. You don't get to be mad at me for pushing for something to happen between us, then turn around and act like I'm the one holing us up. You hold all the cards here. I'm just sitting here, waiting, and feeling stupider by the second."

"I'm not the one that's parading around with an ex," I snapped and tried to push past her, but she just shoved me back.

"Stop it!" she said. "I get that you're confused and hurting, but I refuse to take any more of your abuse! I didn't do anything wrong, here. All I've done is try to help you accept yourself and have my heart stomped on repeatedly. You don't have a right to be mad at me."

"I-" I wanted to tell her off again, but she was right. I really shouldn't be mad at her. I really was only mad at myself, and I kept taking it out on her. "I'm sorry."

"Really?" she said. "You've out me on the emotional roller coaster from hell and basically painted me as a stalker to anyone that asks, making me even more of a social outcast in the process, and all you have to say is that you're sorry?"

I shook my head. "Look, I don't do this...feelings or whatever, and I don't ever apologize, so really, I'm giving you a lot here."

Rachel shut her eyes. "You have to be the most infuriating person on the entire planet. I just came in here to wish you luck, okay? I didn't want this to turn into another fight." She went to leave, but I called her name before she got to the door.

"I know I'm a bitch," I said. "In fact, a lot of the time, I'm pretty damn proud of it. It's sort of my default setting because it's comfortable, and it's what everyone expects. So yeah, I probably am really annoying. Just...just know that when I say I'm sorry, I'm not expecting you to forgive me. I just...I just want you to know that I really am sorry."

Rachel just looked at me for a few seconds before she sighed. "You may be infuriating, but you make it very hard to stay mad at you, Santana Lopez."

"It's why I still have friends," I said with a smirk. I heard Figgins call for the nominees to come to the stage. "I have to go."

Rachel nodded, then leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Quinn doesn't stand a chance," she said before she left, and I couldn't help my grin. I made my way back into the gym and onto the stage. Karofsky gave me a thumbs up, and I gave him a wink.

"Alright, students," he said. "It's the moment you've all been waiting for. In a few short moments, one young lady and one gentleman will be crowned your prom queen and king, respectively."

I looked across the stage at the other nominees. There were two nobodies that didn't stand a chance in hell of winning. You know, the type that freak out just for getting nominated, but never really expect the crown. Then, there was Lauren, who also didn't stand a chance in hell of winning. Sure, she locked down a little of the freak vote, and Puck got her some pull, but it wouldn't be enough.

Then there was Quinn. Quinn, with her stupid blonde hair and hazel eyes. Quinn, who'd always gotten everything I wanted. All the boys, head Cheerio, she even got considered for solos before me a few times in glee club and let's not kid ourselves: I can sing circles around her. It was going to feel so good to win this thing.

"Your 2011 prom queen is...Santana Lopez!" Figgins called over the speakers. I'd won. I'd actually fucking won. I could feel Quinn glaring at me, and I could hear Figgins saying something while they put the crown on my head, but I didn't really register anything. Everyone was clapping and celebrating, and I didn't feel anything I thought I would. I thought I'd feel accomplished. I thought Quinn's obvious envy would give me a sense of satisfaction, but the only thing that was making me remotely happy was the fact that Rachel was right next to the stage screaming her head off and clapping so hard her hands had to hurt.

Now that I had this, I realized Brittany was right: it was just a stupid crown I could get at a party store for fifty cents. It didn't mean anything now, and it wouldn't mean anything ten years from now. Hell, by then, I might forget this night all together.

This was stupid. Why couldn't I see that before?

"Alright, settle down," Figgins said again, and everyone slowly died down. "It's time to reveal your king. And he is..." Figgins opened the envelope, then paused like he had for prom queen. This one was different, though. The smile dropped off of his face, and he looked out to the crowd a few times before finally saying the name.

"Rachel Berry."

The gym went silent. I felt sick. Rachel looked back and forth a few times, confused. Why the hell was this happening? I didn't know what to do. Eventually, Rachel came up to the stage. Figgins put the crown on her head, and that's when people started making noise.

"Nice job, RuPaul!" someone (possibly Azimio) yelled from the back of the gym, and a few people started laughing.

"Make sure you wear a rubber when you nail Lopez tonight!" someone else yelled, and I thought that I might actually throw up on stage. It clicked. Really it should've come together a lot faster in my head, but I'd been in shock when Rachel's name had been called.

This was a prank. A really cruel prank against Rachel...and possibly me. This was all of my worst fears coming true. A good chunk of the crowd was in hysterics at this point. I was so panicked that it took me a few seconds to realize that Rachel wasn't on the stage anymore.

"Where'd she go?" I asked Dave over the sound of my classmates and Principal Figgins, who was trying to calm everyone down.

"She just ran off," he said, pointing at one of the doors. I stared at the door, not knowing what to do, until Dave said, "Go find her."

I just nodded and walked off of the stage.

"Oh, looks like Lezpez is chasing after her girlfriend." Yeah, that was definitely Azimio. "Damn, Karofsky. Hope you at least got to tap that." More laughing.

"Shut the fuck up, man!" I heard Dave yell as I left the gym and went after Rachel. I didn't have to look very hard. There was one place that Rachel always went when she was upset.

"I knew you were here," I said, walking into the choir room. She was sitting at the piano bench, and I saw her shoulders shaking. "Are you okay."

She shook her head. "No, not really."

"I guess I should've known that," I said, sitting down next to her.

She wiped at her eyes. "Are you okay? I know this must be hard on you, too."

"Don't," I said. "This isn't about me right now. I'm sorry those assholes did that to you."

"I really should be used to it by now. It's not like I haven't thought about something awful like this happening at prom. Of course, I was expecting more of a Carrie experience."

"At least you don't have to try to get pigs blood out of your dress," I said, and she laughed. "You look really good, by the way."

"Thanks," she said, and I put my arm around her. "Honestly, I was so focused on everything going on with you and Finn that I didn't even think about the fact that the school would try to pull a prank on me."

"To be fair, I'm pretty sure it was just the dickhead jocks."

"But everyone was laughing, Santana. Just because the football guys are the ones that came after me, that doesn't mean that the rest of the school doesn't hate me, too. Everyone hates me. They always have, and they always will."

"Who gives a fuck about those people?" I said. "They're jealous pricks-"

"I don't believe that anymore," she said. "I used to think that this was all just because they envied my talent and drive, but now I'm just starting to see that there's something wrong with me."

"You don't really believe that," I said, sternly. "You're just saying that because this really sucks, and you're upset about it. Trust me, once this all blows over, and the dust settles, you'll remember that you're so much better than McKinley high school. Hell, Rachel, you're better than the entire state of Ohio. Everyone knows it."

"I just...I just wish people would like me. I don't feel like a horrible person. Selfish at times, yes, but does that really warrant the level of hostility that I have to face on a daily basis? Does it really mean that everyone has to hate me."

"I don't hate you. In fact..." I drifted off. I wanted to say it, but I was still so terrified. Seeing Rachel like this, though, and thinking about this entire stupid night, I couldn't hold it in anymore. "I'm in love with you, Rachel."

She looked at me, disbelief all over her face.

"Please don't say stuff like that just to stop me from crying."

I laughed. "I didn't. I didn't say it because of that, and I didn't say it because I thought it would magically make everything better because it's a great gift or anything, but I just felt like it needed to be said."

She smiled, and new tears started falling out of her eyes.

"I've been waiting for a long time to hear you say that," she said with a smile, and I smiled back. "So...what happens now? With us?"

"I think we have other things to worry about," I said. "Like what we're going to do about this whole mess."

Rachel sighed. "Well, I can't leave."

"Why not?" I asked. "It's not like we can go back in there."

"I have to," she said, and my eyes about bugged out of my head.

"Are you serious? Rachel, that's a room full of people that want to see you miserable."

"Then I won't give them that," she said, standing up. "I'm going to go in with a smile on my face, and thank them for giving me this honor."

I shook my head. "Fuck that. Go in there and start smashing heads with the mic stand."

"Santana, that's what they want. They want to see anger and sadness and a broken girl. I'll give them poise and eloquence instead. It's all I have left."

I sighed. "That is the weirdest form of revenge I've ever heard of," I said, standing up. "Well, I guess I can't let you do this alone."

"I'm not expecting you to do this with me," she said. "I know you aren't ready. You can just sneak out or something. You've already done so much for me tonight."

"Yeah, and you've done a hell of a lot more for me," I said. "I'm going. Besides, Santana Lopez isn't a coward." I grabbed her hand. "At least not anymore."

We walked into the gym together. It had mostly calmed down, but there were a few snickers when Rachel and I walked in. We walked back onto the stage, and Rachel went to the microphone.

"I'd just like to say thank you to everyone that voted for me. It speaks volumes that you gave me this position even though I wasn't nominated or the usual gender to receive such an honor. I'd also like to remind you all that as your elected prom king, you've given me the right to have a hand in the decision-making process of next year's senior prom theme. I'm thinking it will highlight all of Barbra Streisand's greatest works, as well as feature some other influential voices in musical theatre, just to keep things interesting. Again, I thank you."

I couldn't help but laugh as I saw the look of realization settle across everyone's faces. It also helped that most of the glee club was clapping wildly after Rachel's speech, and a good chunk of people were glaring at Azimio and his friends.

Principal Figgins walked up to the pair of us after Rachel was done.

"Considering the circumstances, I think we'll wave the tradition of a king and queen dance," he whispered.

I looked at Rachel, then shook my head. "No, it's fine. I wouldn't mind a dance with my king."

"Santana, are you sure?" Rachel asked me. "It'll be hard denying everything if you do this."

"I think the cat's out of the bag," I said. "Besides, like you said, I've wanted to dance with you all night."

Rachel smiled and grabbed my hand. I led her onto the dance floor, and Figgins said something about our dance. I could feel everyone looking at us...staring at us...as the song started. More than a few people were glaring. Finn looked like he wanted to punch me out. Brittany was bouncing up and down in Artie's lap, and he was just smiling at the two of us. Puck had a sleazy grin on his face, but I knew he meant well, so I decided not to flip him off. The rest of the club just seemed happy for us.

"This is nice," Rachel said, leaning her head on my shoulder as we danced.

"Yeah, this prom doesn't suck so hard," I said, and she laughed.

"I'm glad I got to be your king," she said with a little giggle.

"I am, too," I said, pulling her close. "I am, too."


End file.
